Russia’s second largest state controlled bank VTB (VTBR) and Russia’s largest e-commerce marketplace Wildberries are discussing a potential merger or integration, according to RBC business portal citing unnamed sources.

Wildberries and its peer Ozon Holdings are leading the Russian market in the ongoing e-commerce consolidation. Both have strengthened their fintech verticals, to the annoyance of major banks and the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). 

In 2024, Wildberries was rocked by controversy surrounding a merger deal with Russ Group, an outdoor advertising operator reportedly controlled by billionaire Dagestan senator Suleiman Kerimov that is a tenth of the size of Wildberries. 

In 2025, as the case seemed to have settled down, Wildberries started to venture into new verticals and went on a mysterious M&A spree, covered in detail by IntelliNews.

VTB is Russia’s second-largest state controlled bank and it has previously been involved in many state-affiliated takeovers of assets across major industries. This is also reportedly one of the reasons pressuring VTB’s capital. 

Having VTB strike a deal with Wildberries would also fit into a larger pattern of state takeover of e-commerce and digital assets. Previous reports also claimed that Wildberries would hire ex-deputy chairman of VTB Georgy Gorshkov to head its own new bank.

However, the founder and CEO of Wildberries and Rusisa's richest woman Tatiana Kim denied the reports, stating “100% no, this [merger with VTB] is complete nonsense”, according to The Bell.

According to RBC and The Bell, the potential deal between VTB and Wildberries could be a way to appease the tensions between the banking sector and e-commerce players that have notably boosted their fintech capabilities.

In November 2025 major lenders including Russia’s largest state controlled bank Sberbank (SBER), VTB, Alfa Bank, T-Bank and Sovcombank appealed to State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin to ban marketplaces from setting different prices depending on the payment method. 

Banks argue that platforms such as Wildberries and Ozon are redirecting financial flows by offering discounts for payments through their own banking services, effectively excluding competitors from part of the transaction ecosystem. 

Sberbank CEO German Gref reportedly estimated the state’s tax losses from such schemes at RUB1.5 trillion ($16.4bn) annually, while marketplaces warned that banning discounts could lead to price increases of 15%–20%.

Against this backdrop, sources cited by RBC said the state has tasked stakeholders with finding a compromise, and a potential VTB Wildberries deal could serve as a mechanism to align interests of both. 

Oversight of the platform economy is reportedly informally coordinated by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Maxim Oreshkin, who has warned of the risks of “platform feudalism”, describing digital platforms as systems that extract rent by limiting consumer choice, The Bell reminds.

Oreshkin also suggested that mature platforms could evolve towards state or quasi-state governance models, particularly as they begin to resemble natural monopolies.

According to RBC’s sources, VTB could integrate technologically with the platform to create a “great marketplace”, gaining access to commission income generated from Wildberries’ gross merchandise value of RUB6.1 trillion ($67bn) in 2025, which rose 49% year on year, while Wildberries would secure a large financial partner.

However, sources familiar with the talks told The Bell that more pragmatic drivers may be at play, noting that VTB is one of the largest creditors to Wildberries, and elevated interest rates could complicate debt servicing despite the company reporting a net debt to EBITDA ratio below 2x under IFRS.

Two main financing mechanisms are reportedly under consideration. In the first, VTB could conduct an additional share issue, reducing the state’s stake from 74.45% to 50% plus one share, and use the proceeds to acquire a stake in Wildberries.

In the second, part of the state’s stake in VTB could be exchanged for shares in Wildberries, turning existing marketplace shareholders into minority shareholders of the bank with dividend income. 

Valuation would be the main point, with Wildberries estimated at $12.6bn, approximately equivalent to two years of VTB’s net profit of RUB502bn in 2025.

Analysts and sources cited by RBC and The Bell highlight that the deal could also serve broader state objectives, including leveraging VTB’s ownership of Postal Bank, which operates a network of around 25,000 outlets, as infrastructure for Wildberries. 

This could support the development of ailing Russian Post without direct budget funding and create synergies across state linked assets, while also helping resolve the ongoing conflict between banks and marketplaces.