SBER.L Regulatory News (SBER)

Sberbank releases Financial Highlights for 5 months of 2021 (under RAS, non-consolidated)

The numbers are calculated in accordance with Sberbank's internal methodology.

Please note that some minor changes became effective in Sberbank's internal methodology starting from January 1, 2021. Therefore, the numbers for 2020 have been recalculated to make them comparable.

June 7, 2021

Key highlights for May:

Alexandra Buriko, CFO, stated:

"Our financial performance in May was steady despite somewhat slower business activity at the beginning of the month due to the May holidays and supplementary non-working days. Loan portfolio expansion remained robust, as did loan quality, mainly due to retail lending which increased by 9% year-to-date. As a result, we earned RUB488 bn in net profit for the first five months, and ROE came in at 24.2%."

Comments for 5m 2021:

Net interest income increased by 11.4% y/y, and amounted to RUB636.3 bn, due to growth in lending and securities portfolio. Slower sequential growth as compared to 4m2021 was due to the retrospective accounting in May 2020 for a positive impact from the decrease in allocations to deposit insurance starting from the beginning of 2020.

Net fee and commission income totaled RUB222.4 bn, up by 20.3% as compared to the same period last year. This growth for the second month in a row owed mainly to the low-base effect of respective period in 2020 due to the lockdown constraints (net fee and commission income was up by 38.3% y/y in May 2021). Main growth drivers were banking cards transactions and acquiring, as well as income from client settlement transactions.

Operating expenses were up by 9.5% y/y and amounted to RUB254.7 bn. The dynamics owed to the low level of operating expenses in the spring of 2020 due to the subdued business activity amid the non-working days as well as smoother calendarization for OpEx in 2021. Cost-to-income ratio came in at 27.4%. 

Total provision charge including fair-value revaluation totaled RUB72.3 bn for 5m 2021, which was 4-times less than the charge a year ago when the Bank made significant provisions on the back of worsening macro environment and the pandemic constraints. In May, provision charge amounted to RUB4.6 bn. Loan-loss provisions stayed stable at 2.2 times that of the overdue loans. 

Net profit before income tax for 5m 2021 increased 1.8-times y/y, and came in at RUB602.8 bn. Net profit was also 1.8-times higher y/y, and amounted to RUB488.0 bn.

Total assets in May changed insignificantly, and were RUB35 trn.

The Bank issued RUB856 bn in loans to corporate clients in May. The corporate loan portfolio was up by 0.5%, adjusted for FX revaluation, mainly from lending in Rubles, to exceed RUB15.6 trn as of June 1, 2021.

Loan production to retail clients was in the amount of RUB471 bn in May. Total retail portfolio exceeded RUB9.2 trn as of June 1, 2021, driven by the mortgages and consumer unsecured lending.

The share of overdue loans in total loan portfolio came down by 0.04 pp to 3.12% in May, driven by retail and corporate loans.

The securities portfolio was up by 0.2% to RUB5.2 trn in May from the purchases of the OFZ and Eurobonds of the Russian Federation.

Retail client funding decreased by 1.4% in May, adjusted for FX revaluation, from the funds in the Ruble accounts after a record growth of 4.4% in April, while the funds in the Dollar accounts increased by 0.8%. Such dynamics was explained by the carryover of payroll and pension distribution from the beginning of May to the end of April in light of the additional non-working days between the May holidays. The ending balances of the escrow accounts exceeded RUB1 trn, supported by high volumes of mortgage lending.

Corporate client funding in May came down by 0.3%, adjusted for FX revaluation, to RUB7.5 trn as of June 1, 2021.

The total client funding was down for the month by 1.1%, adjusted for FX revaluation, to reach RUB23.4 trn.

Core Tier 1 and Tier 1 capital came down in May by RUB428 bn, or by 10%, from the dividend distribution for 2020. 

Total capital in May decreased by RUB345 bn, or by 6.9%. The earnings for May partially mitigated the capital decrease related to the dividend distribution.

The CET1 and T1 capital ratios were 11.94% and 12.41% respectively. The calculation of the ratios does not include the net profit earned during the period between January and May 2021 inclusively, until it is audited, as per the CBR Regulation No. 646-P "On the methodology of determining shareholder equity (capital) of lending institutions (Basel III).

Risk-weighted assets* in May increased by 0.9%, or by RUB274 bn, mainly due to the loan portfolio growth.

* preliminary calculations

Sberbank Financial Highlights for 5 months 2021 (under RAS, non-consolidated)