Russia's Sberbank to open branch in Delhi
14 Sep 2009
Sberbank, Russia's largest state-run bank, will shortly open a branch in New Delhi, becoming the second Russian bank to open a branch in India after number two state-owned VTB bank.
Sberbank (Savings Bank) last month received clearance from the Reserve Bank of India for opening a full-service branch in New Delhi and is currently completing formalities for obtaining the banking license and hiring staff.
Sberbank, which accounts for about a quarter of assets and a third of banking capital in Russia, is looking at India and China to generate about 5 per cent of net income outside Russia by 2014.
Sberbank, along with Canada's Magna International Inc had, last week, announced their joint offer to acquire a 55 per cent stake in Adam Opel GmbH (Opel).
Established in 1841, Sberbank ranked 38th in the world in terms of Tier 1 capital as of 1 July 2009, according to the Banker magazine.
Sberbank's net profit plummeted to 6 billion roubles in the first half (January-June) of 2009 against 67 billion roubles in the same period last year.
Operating income before provisioning for loan impairment rose 44 per cent in first half 2009. Net interest income grew 45.3 while net commission income grew 21.2.
Provisioning for loan impairment increased 11-fold. On the other hand, staff costs decreased 4.9 per cent
The Sberbank group was steadily increasing its loan loss provision in 1H 2009, in tune with its conservative provisioning policy, amidst the global economic instability, the bank said in a release.
