OREANDA-NEWS. May 26, 2009. Please note that the numbers are calculated in accordance with Sberbank’s internal methodology approved in March 2009 as a part of internal accounting optimization and convergence with IFRS accounting principles.  Also note that the numbers as of 1 January 2009 include the effect of subsequent events, reported the press-centre of Sberbank.

Income Statement Highlights for 4 Months 2009 (as compared to 4 Months 2008)
Operating income before provisions grew 37.6% y-o-y
Net interest income increased by 46.2% y-o-y
Net fee and commission income increased by 10.7% y-o-y
Operating expenses decreased by 7.5% y-o-y
Provisions were 11 times higher y-o-y
Profit before tax amounted to RUB1.8 bn vs. RUB62.1 bn for 4 months of 2008
Net profit totaled RUB0.8 bn vs. RUB45.6 bn for 4 months of 2008

Assets shrank by 1.9% YTD to RUB6,597 bn, which was largely the result of reduction in cash and amounts placed with other banks channeled in loans to companies of the real economy. Over the past 4 months, the Bank granted about RUB1,380 bn in loans to legal entities. Corporate loan book expanded by 8.3% YTD to RUB4,313 bn. The Bank lent to all loan applicants who met the risk requirements assigned by its internal lending policy. Risk management and sustainability of the adequate credit quality of the loan portfolio are the Bank’s predominant tasks at present.

Weak demand for retail loans translated into a 4.9% YTD contraction of the retail loan book to RUB1,196 bn.

Loan portfolio quality remains decent, with overdue loans comprising 2.5% of the total loans - corporate and retail - as of 1 May 2009. This is well below the sector average of 3.7% for the previous reporting date of 1 April 2009.

The Bank’s securities portfolio incurred minor changes, up by 2.0% YTD to RUB500 bn. The proportion of government securities in the portfolio decreased from 64% to 55% upon maturity of the OFZ issue. In the meantime, the share of corporate interest-bearing securities increased from 17% to 24% given the Bank was actively lending to the Russian companies via purchases of their bonds. Sub-federal bonds constituted 16% of the Bank’s securities portfolio, investments in debt securities of Russian banks and corporate shares accounted for 2% and 3% of the portfolio, respectively.

Retail deposits grew by 3.7% YTD to RUB3,238 bn. This partially offset outflows from corporate accounts, which were down 8.7% YTD to RUB1,643 bn led by outflows in current accounts. At the same time, the Bank restored corporate inflows into term deposits after its rates were raised to market level. This allowed the Bank to reduce more expensive CBR short-tem funding by 2.5 times to RUB94 bn. As of 1 May 2009, the overall funds raised from the CBR amounted to RUB594 bn, including the RUB500 bn subordinated loan received at the end of 2008. 

Sberbank’s regulatory capital (under CBR regulation No. 215-P) increased by 17.4% YTD to RUB1.358 bn. The main drivers for the growth were: 

Reclassification of RUB109.9 bn in net profit for 2008 (confirmed by the ZAO PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit) from the supplementary to core capital, which increased the supplementary capital in line with the computation rules;

Inclusion in the supplementary capital of the RUB81.8 bn gain on revaluation of premises by Ernst & Young Valuation LLC as of 1 January 2009.

The capital adequacy ratio stood at 22.6% as of 1 May, 2009.