MOSCOW, Dec 22 Reuters The Bank of Russia on Thursday said it had agreed to sell bailedout Otkritie Bank to the country39;s No.2 lender, stateowned VTB, for 340 billion roubles 4.7 billion.

The deal consists of 233 billion roubles in cash and the remainder in OFZ treasury bonds, the central bank said.

The central bank bailed out Otkritie, once Russia39;s largest private lender, in 2017 as part of a yearslong campaign to clean up Russia39;s banking sector.

Otkritie had previously been linked with a possible sale to Italy39;s UniCredit or even a public stock market launch before sanctions torpedoed plans for anything more than a domestic transaction.

The Bank of Russia39;s board of directors decided to sell 100 of shares in Otkritie Bank to VTB Bank, the central bank said in a statement.

Independent assessor DRT assessed their market value in the range of 328374 billion roubles.

Otkritie and its group of companies has previously been valued at up to 400 billion roubles.

1 72.3200 roubles

Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Mark Trevelyan

Source Reuters