Sberbank made a record profit of 357.2 billion rubles in the first quarter

(Added details, analyst comments)

MOSCOW, May 18 (Reuters) – Russia’s largest bank Sberbank posted 357.2 billion rubles in IFRS net profit for the first quarter of 2023, a record for the period.

Analysts believe that such indicators will fully allow the bank to meet its annual profit forecast and reach pre-crisis levels.

Net interest income increased year-on-year to RUB 562.8 billion thanks to an increase in the volume of operating assets and the restoration of banking margins.

The net interest margin increased to 5.78% in the first quarter as a result of the normalization of interest rates on loans and the devaluation of the balance sheet.

Net fee and commission income fell to RUB 171.1 billion as a result of a high base last year, driven by increased client trading activity and an increase in FX transactions.

“The good results in the first quarter, the solid quality of the loan portfolio and high operational efficiency give grounds to raise our ROE forecast for 2023 above 22%,” said the Bank’s president, German Gref, in a statement.

Sberbank increased its own funds by 5.8% to 6.1 trillion rubles during the quarter.

The total cost of provisioning and revaluation of loans to fair value amounted to RUB 84.2 billion, with a cost of risk of 1.1%.

The retail loan portfolio increased by 4.4% since the beginning of the year, while the corporate loan portfolio increased by 4.6%.

Sber’s share in the corporate loan market exceeded 32%, the bank said.

At the end of the first quarter of 2023, Sber’s sustainable finance portfolio (environmental, adaptation and ESG loans) increased to 1.4 trillion rubles.

Individual funds amounted to 18.5 trillion roubles, showing an increase of 0.3% since the beginning of the year (-0.7% without revaluation). Due to legal entities, it has increased by 1.6% since the beginning of the year (-3.5% without revaluation) to 11.6 trillion roubles.

“Sber is successfully continuing its technological transformation. The development of Sber is based on its own operating system, which ensures independence from foreign suppliers and maximum protection of information, the bank said.

Analysts called the financial performance of the bank whose shares are

The most popular

securities among private investors of the Moscow Stock Exchange.

Alfa-Bank experts believe that in 2023 Sberbank’s net profit will exceed 1.4 trillion rubles – “the bank is clearly moving in this direction.” According to them, investors are waiting for generous dividends – 30 rubles per share with a yield of about 13%.

“Record quarterly profit of 357.2 billion rubles, above BCS and consensus expectations… with a high return on equity of 25%. Strong, positive results,” BCS analysts wrote.

Sberbank plans to make a pre-crisis year profit in 2023, Gref said earlier.

Sberbank made a net profit of 270.5 billion rubles in accordance with IFRS in 2022 against 1.2 trillion rubles in 2021. (Elena Fabrichnaya. Edited by Oksana Kobzeva and Dmitry Antonov)