Page 79 - RusRPTApr20

8.1.8 Sberbank news
Sberbank has announced that it is to introduce a support programme for corporate borrowers that are most affected by COVID-19. The bank is to delay loan payments for six months for companies from the following industries: transport, services, construction materials production, retail and wholesale trade, education, sport and the arts. For hotels and trade real estate companies, the delay is to last until the end of the loan agreement. To recap, in some CEE countries, the regulators have introduced moratoria for loan repayments of up to 12 months.
Depending on how the COVID-19 pandemic develops in Russia, repayment holidays could be provided to up to a third of the outstanding loan book. Of that, some two thirds is exposure to retail (dominated by mortgages) and the rest to Trades, SME, transportation and the hospitality industry. The biggest risk swing factor are unsecured consumer cash loans, which could bring total eligible loans with repayment holidays up to 50%. With Sberbank’s cost of funding at 4%, the three-month repayment holidays could cost Sberbank RUB 70-110bn in terms of the carry cost, with lost revenues of RUB 105-165bn per quarter i.e. 33-50% of quarterly PBT. Judging by the CEE experience, the repayment holidays offered by the banks are, on average, six months, with policymakers envisaging repayment holidays of up to twelve months.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) will opt out of making a buyout offer to minority shareholders in the sales deal of the controlling stake in country's largest lender Sberbank, Reuters reported on March 10 citing the Deputy Head of CBR Sergei Shvecov. As reported by bne IntelliNews, the CBR agreed to sell 50% plus one share stake in Sberbank at market value to the Finance Ministry financed by the National Welfare Fund (NWF), only to feed the proceeds of the sale back to the state budget to support the spending drive. Despite the deal being seen as weakening fiscal discipline (as it would de-facto tap into NWF funds while bypassing the strict investment rules of the
79 RUSSIA Country Report April 2020 www.intellinews.com