ALFA BANK DEPUTY BUYS LITTLE-KNOWN VCA INSURANCE UNIT

Ildar Karimov, the deputy chairman of Russia's Alfa Bank, has bought locally based insurer Vesta Central Agency (VCA) for R4.2m, Russian business paper Vedomosti reports. The move follows the purchase of VESTA - a much larger, loosely related local insurer - by Alfa Bank's parent company, Alfa Group. Despite the apparent parallels, Mr Karimov is understood to have bought VCA in a personal capacity, while VESTA has now been merged into Alfa Group's existing insurance operation Alfa Strakhovanie. According to Vedomosti, VCA was originally formed in 1999 by a VESTA management team to assume all of the insurer's Moscow business, with the aim of freeing VESTA to concentrate on various national insurance projects, though the spin-off arrangement is said to have quickly been scrapped. It remains unclear whether VESTA subsequently sold off the unit, and Mr Karimov has so far refused to comment on the transaction. VCA generated premiums worth R20m last year.