KIEV, May 5 - Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash spent about $440 million to acquire a 90% stake in Nadra Bank, a large troubled bank that has been under central bank management since 2009, Nadra reported.

Firtash's Austria-registered firm Centragas Holding acquired a new share issue as part of the deal that brings in private capital to bail out the troubled bank.

The move increases to more than $500 million from $60 million capital of Nadra Bank, improving the chance of survival for what was one of the largest banks in Ukraine before the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

The government earlier estimated that Nadra Bank needed about $1.1 billion in capital injections - including from the government - to get back on track, but analysts said the latest deal may be enough to save the bank.

“We believe there are options at which the government’s involvement may not be even required,” according to Olha Slyvynska, a senior analyst at Dragon Capital brokerage.

Nadra, with assets of 22.9 billion hryvnias, is Ukraine's 11th largest bank. It has restructured its foreign debt with significant write-offs after going into default in 2009.

Ukraine’s central bank put Nadra Bank into temporary administration in February 2009 and extended it this year after the commercial bank ran out of cash during the financial crisis. To keep the bank afloat, Ukraine’s central bank pumped it up with more than $1 billion in loans and other assistance from late 2008 to 2010. Ukraine had to either liquidate Nadra Bank or attract private investors to bail it out among other conditions for securing the next installment from the International Monetary Fund’s $15.5 billion loan.

Other conditions apparently include launching a pension reform that raises retirement age for women and also steps to hike household natural gas prices.

The acquisition of Nadra also underscores the rise of Firtash, one of the key allies of President Viktor Yanukovych.

Firtash’s business interests came under attack from then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in 2009 when she had engineered the removal of his RosUkrEnergo gas trader as key gas supplier to Ukraine.Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko at the presidential election in February 2010. (nr/ez)