István Tiborcz, the son-in-law of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and one of the country’s wealthiest individuals, is reportedly considering purchasing a Russian subsidiary of Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), according to the Der Standard newspaper. RBI nominally holds a 13.1% stake in the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).
According to Forbes Hungary, Tiborcz has an estimated fortune of €370 million and ranks 15th among Hungary’s wealthiest people. He is married to Viktor Orbán’s daughter Ráhel Orbán.
Sources cited by Der Standard indicate that Tiborcz is engaged in negotiations with RBI, involving representatives from the Russian Central Bank and the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hungary’s largest bank OTP Bank, which also operates in Russia, is allegedly another potential party to the deal.
Representatives for both Tiborcz and OTP Bank have denied any involvement in the potential purchase of RBI. Meanwhile, RBI has not directly refuted Der Standard’s reporting, stating only that, due to a Russian court ruling, RBI is currently unable to transfer its shares because of a court-imposed restriction.
This legal hurdle stems from a dispute over Rasperia Trading Limited’s stake in Strabag, one of Europe’s largest construction companies, headquartered in Vienna. Until March 2024, Rasperia was linked to Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska. Rasperia has accused RBI and Strabag’s founder Peter Haselsteiner of attempting to dilute its shares. RBI is also a defendant in the case.
RBI first announced plans to scale back its operations in Russia in spring 2022. In October of that year, Putin issued a ban on transactions involving shares of 45 banks without government approval. The list included several systemically important financial institutions, among them RBI.
In April 2024, the European Central Bank (ECB) directed Austria’s RBI to speed up the downsizing of its operations in Russia. At the time, the ECB required Russian Raiffeisen Bank to reduce its loan portfolio by 65% by 2026, compared to its size in the third quarter of 2023.
How is Russian Raiffeisen Bank linked to KASE?
In June 2024, the Moscow Exchange (MOEX), which then held a 13.1% stake in KASE, was placed under U.S. sanctions. By October, KASE announced MOEX’s removal from its shareholder list and the termination of its relationship with the Russian trading platform.
The MOEX stake was subsequently transferred to two Russian entities: Tethys Capital, acting as trustee for the closed-end mutual fund Nigella, which acquired an 8.5% stake, and Balance Asset Management, trustee for the closed-end fund Levkoy, which took a 4.6% share.
As of Jan. 1, 2025, Russian Raiffeisen Bank became the nominal holder of the full 13.1% stake previously owned by MOEX, while Tethys Capital and Balance Asset Management were no longer listed as shareholders.
In November 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on the Russian registrar Infinitum, which held shares in the Nigella and Levkoy mutual funds.
