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considering the company for this role. Representatives of Sberbank, Immunotechnology and the government declined to comment. With a proposal to endow Immunotechnology with the status of a single supplier of vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19 in public procurement in November, Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko appealed to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. “ Vedomosti ” got acquainted with a copy of the letter. It states that the company has "all the necessary capabilities and competencies to optimally meet the needs of government customers." It also says that the Ministry of Health has already developed a draft government order to endow the company with the status of a single supplier. In the letter, Murashko asks Mishustin to instruct the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to agree on the project "as soon as possible." The representative of the Ministry of Finance confirmed that the draft government order has been submitted to the Ministry for consideration. The Ministry of Finance has already sent its comments to the government, the source of Vedomosti added, but did not specify, which ones. Representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Federal Antimonopoly Service did not respond to inquiries.
Sberbank​ released its latest three-year strategy on December 1​, and despite the bank’s rebranding to Sber, it has a ways to go to become a bona fide tech company. By 2023, Sber plans to earn just 5% of its revenue from its non-financial businesses. Come 2030, the firm hopes this figure will grow to 20-30% of net operating income. In growing its non-financial holdings, Sberbank will focus on e-commerce, entertainment, cloud services, education, and healthcare. As Sber’s key non-financial holdings are in fast-growing sectors of the economy, their revenues should double annually, company executive Lev Khasis projects. To achieve its ambitious goals, Sberbank is prepared to spend 4% of its capital on building its non-financial ecosystem, the bulk of which will go toward e-commerce. By 2023, Sberbank should be a top-3 market player in Russian e-commerce, and by 2030, the firm should be the industry leader.
8.1.8 ​Bank news
VTB​ posted its 10M20 IFRS results towards the close of business on 1 December​. VTB earned RUB 5.4bn in October, slightly down from its September net profit of RUB 6.1bn. NIM improved 13bps MoM and 40bps YoY, which in combination with the 10% YoY loan growth pushed NII up 25% YoY. Cost of risk remained below 1% in October, while the NPL coverage ratio added 9ppts MoM. Net fees were flat MoM in October but fell 18% YoY, as VTB posted non-recurring fee revenue from its CIB segment last October. At the same time, monthly opex moderated by 5% YoY following VTB's cost optimization efforts. The reason why the bottom line did not improve MoM despite stronger core revenue is other loss almost doubling MoM. This was likely driven by the negative revaluation of non-financial assets, which was
109 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ January 2021 www.intellinews.com