EBRD to exit Russia investments “as quickly as possible” – president

MARRAKECH (Reuters) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will exit its stakes in Russian companies as quickly as possible, the lender’s President Odile Renaud-Basso said on Tuesday.

“We are going to get out and phase out our portfolio as quickly as possible and we are working on it. We can not say more,” Renaud-Basso said in a media briefing on the sidelines of the bank’s annual meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.

The EBRD has not put new money to work in Russia since the Kremlin annexed Crimea in 2014. However, the lender still holds stakes in a number of Russian companies, including in the financial sector, such as Credit Bank of Moscow and the Moscow stock exchange MOEX

(Reporting by Ahmed El Jechtimi, writing by Karin Strohecker, editing by Sujata Rao)