Sberbank has decided to make its financial results public, in anticipation of a road show for its planned share placement. The state bank expects to post a net profit exceeding 160 billion roubles for the first six months of 2011, which is 160% greater than during the same period last year.
Sberbank head German Gref reported to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday on the bank's financial performance. "In the first five months of this year, we posted a net profit of 137 billion roubles, calculated according to Russian Accounting Standards, and expect it to exceed 160 billion for the first six months, which is nearly as much as all of last year," he said, as reported by RIA Novosti.
If the bank continues at this pace, it may once again have to revise its forecast for their year-end profit upward from the previous estimate of 250-270 billion roubles.
According to preliminary IFRS results, Sberbank's loan portfolio grew more than 9.5% during the first six months of 2011 (8% in nominal value), with its corporate loan portfolio increasing by 7.32% and its personal loan portfolio by more than 10.6%.
German Gref also told the prime minister that Sberbank has been included in two global rankings.
This year the bank "was included in two rankings of the world's most reliable banks – we are one of the 20 most reliable banks in the world," he said. "Sberbank is also one of the world's 100 most valuable brands. These two achievements are very important to us."
Gref told Vladimir Putin about the bank's financial achievements and global ranking for a reason: this August it plans to start holding meetings with investors about the privatisation of a part (7.58%) of the government's share of the bank.
Sberbank has set a very ambitious goal for itself -- they hope to sell the entire package at once, not merely 2% or 3%. "We will sell as much as we can, but the outcome depends on the market," Gref said.
Perhaps this is why the bank has decided to place its shares for sale on several exchanges simultaneously.
"At the moment, it doesn't matter where we sell. We will sell here and there, in London and Frankfurt, and also a little in Paris and on the MICEX. Our plans so far do not include the New York exchange," Gref said.
Investors have reacted favourably to the bank's financial report. Sberbank went up 0.06% on the MICEX yesterday, to 104.36 roubles per share, whereas the MICEX index fell 0.27% to 1705.41 points.
Natalya Starostina