Banking and credit rating analysts have welcomed the move by Nordea to take a 75 per cent stake in Russia's Orgresbank for $313 million. The deal is part of the Nordic banking group's plan to capitalise on Russia's fast-growing corporate and retail banking markets. Tom Ruud, head of corporate and institutional banking at Nordea said the acquisition would allow Orgresbank to introduce Nordea products in the areas of mortgages, consumer loans, private banking services, cash management and e-banking. Ratings agency Fitch placed Orgresbank's on Rating Watch Positive following the announcement. It noted that the completion of the deal should improve Orgresbank's capital and funding flexibility, as well as provide access to Nordea's product and risk management expertise. Andrew Keeley, banking analyst at Moscow investment bank Renaissance Capital, told WealthBriefing that the additional funding will be used to boost Ogresbank's SME lending and to allow it to expand its branch network in the regions. He said: "Orgresbank appears to be a good target for Nordea, which has been actively looking to acquire a mid-sized Russian bank since it sold its 26 per cent stake in International Moscow Bank to Unicredito for $395 million in June." Mr Keeley said the price tag seemed reasonable, with a price to book value of 3.0, which is the same as what Austria's Raiffeisenbank paid for Russia's Impexbank in February this year. Orgresbank, which is Russia's sixty-seventh largest bank by assets, is active in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It employs 1000 people in 35 branches and outlets throughout Russia. The remaining 24 per cent of the bank is to be split between current management and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Separately, Nordea's latest results indicated that private banking had driven net inflows at its fund and life arm to €1.8 billion ($2.3 billion)in the third quarter, with income up 8 per cent on the same period last year. Nordea currently has €39 billion of client assets under management in its Nordic private banking operations and another €9 billion in its European private banking business, an overall year-on-year increase of 17.7 per cent.