Moscow
Russia’s top bank Sberbank SBER.MM on Thursday reported a 32% fall in third-quarter net profit, hurt by a foreign exchange loss due to the sale of Denizbank in Turkey. The sale of Denizbank, once Sberbank’s largest unit outside Russia, was completed in July and has marked the end of its foreign expansion era, capped by western sanctions on Russia and lower returns in the banking industry worldwide. Sberbank sold Denizbank to Emirates NBD Group ENBD.DU for 170.7 billion roubles ($2.7 billion). On Thursday, Sberbank said it has faced a loss of 73.3 billion roubles in the third quarter, mainly from foreign exchange, due to the sale. Net profit fell to 156.1 billion roubles ($2.45 billion) in the quarter. Excluding the sale of Denizbank, net profit rose 6.3% to 230.8 billion roubles, the bank said. The bank’s return on equity – a measure of profitability – excluding the Denizbank sale, stood at 22.4%, down from 24.3% a year ago. The share of non performing loans at the end of the third quarter was 7.9%, largely unchanged from the end of June. —Reuters
