(Bloomberg) -- Raiffeisen Bank International AG suffered its second major setback related to its Russian business in less than a month after EU and US regulators forced it to cancel a complex deal that would have enabled it to move profits out of the country.

The bank said it hadn’t been able to get regulators to back the plan, putting it at risk of violating sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last month, the European Central Bank told the lender that it needed to accelerate the wind-down of the unit, which accounted for about half of its pre-tax profits last year.

Had Raiffeisen’s strategy been approved, it would have allowed the Austrian lender to repatriate about €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) of profits stuck in its Russian unit. The plan involved purchasing shares of an Austrian construction company that were previously held by sanctioned businessman Oleg Deripaska.

“In an abundance of caution, the bank has decided to walk away from the deal,” Raiffeisen said in a statement Wednesday. 

The move deals a further blow to the bank’s efforts to extract value from its Russian subsidiary, which were already complicated by limits on taking dividend payments out of the country. With pressure intensifying from regulators in both the EU and US, the decision also raises questions about whether Raiffeisen will ultimately need to walk away from the unit if it can’t find an adequate buyer.

Raiffeisen shares fell as much as 4.8% after the announcement on Wednesday, before paring losses and trading 0.9% lower as of 4:46 p.m. in Vienna. 

The bank’s indecision has weighed on its shares, which have lost 34% of their value since the beginning of 2022, shortly before the war started. That compares with a 39% gain for the Stoxx 600 index of European banks.

Under the plan announced in December, Raiffeisen’s Russian subsidiary would have bought shares amounting to 24.1% of Austrian builder Strabag SE from Iliadis JSC, a Russian company that had recently acquired the stake from Deripaska’s MKAO Rasperia Trading. Raiffeisen then planned to repatriate the shares as a dividend in kind.

The decision to abandon the plan highlights how difficult it’s become for banks to try and exit Russia with money in hand. Raiffeisen has failed to find an adequate buyer since announcing sale plans in 2022. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has indicated that it wants the lender, and peers such as UniCredit SpA, to further cut the subsidiary’s loan book.

Chief Executive Officer Johann Strobl has repeatedly said that he can’t just leave the country overnight, pointing to client relations and management’s fiduciary duties to shareholders. 

Yet some lenders, such as Societe Generale SA, have acted faster. The French firm sold its Russian unit within weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, booking a loss of about €3 billion on the transaction.

Raiffeisen has said it will continue to pursue options to deconsolidate its Russian unit.

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