Avtobank-NIKoil and Ural-Siberian Bank announced Friday that they will merge in a year to create one of the country's largest banks

Avtobank-NIKoil and Ural-Siberian Bank announced Friday that they will merge in a year to create one of the country's largest banks, following a sell-off of a UralSib stake that analysts are flatly calling rigged. NIKoil Financial Corp., the parent company of Avtobank-NIKoil, is conducting a due diligence study of Ufa-based UralSib, and UralSib will return in kind by January, the two banks said Friday. NIKoil president Nikolai Tsvetkov told reporters that the combined bank would have 500 offices across the country, a figure close to that of Rosbank-OVK -- a bank formed in July when Rosbank's owner, Interros, bought Pervoye OVK bank for $200 million. The planned merger could create "the second-biggest branch network in Russia," after Sberbank, said Andrew Keeley, banking analyst at Renaissance Capital. But like other analysts, he qualified his comments: "It's still a long way off. Seems premature to be talking about it now." What Hainsworth was referring to was a confirmation Friday from the two banks that a NIKoil affiliate won a 14 percent stake in UralSib from the Bashkir government on Wednesday. Earlier, NIKoil had publicly denied it planned to bid.