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on November 5 citing the head of Trust Alexander Sokolov. As reported by ​bne IntelliNews,​ ​Safmar was said to will buy out 49% of A101 real estate developer from Trust Bank for about RUB40bn, but more deals might follow. Sokolov did not disclose which other assets will be included in the deal. Reportedly, Safmar will pay RUb94bn to the banks in cash, and will give up RUB31bn in legal claims to the two banks. Trust and FC Otkritie were among the largest private banks bailed out it 2017 during the central bank's sector clean-up. Reuters reported that assets in the deal apart from the stake in A101 could include shares in Slavkaly potash producer, stake in Safmar Financial Investments, and bonds of Region Invest and Digital Invest investment holdings. Since 2018 Gutseriev's Safmar Group has been making headlines due to the mega-merger of its electronics retail assets​, the consolidation of oil and ​coal assets​, and reported interest in ​children’s' goods retailer Detsky Mir​. Gutseriev, 58, is worth an estimated $6.7bn and raked in $500mn from the successful IPO of his oil asset Russneft in November 2016, which is the source of most of his wealth. Trust Bank also holds preferred shares of Russneft.
Leading Russian consumer lender ​TCS Group​ that operates Russia’s only pure online bank posted net income of RUB9.7bn in 3Q19 ​under IFRS, beating the consensus expectations by 4% and making a return on equity of 56%. The bank continued the growth despite expectations of slowdown in the consumer lending portfolio in 2H19. In the reporting quarter TCS maintained strong loan growth of 10% q/q (61% year-to-date and in line with the 60% 2019 guidance). However, the cost of risk (CoR) for the bank rose to the record-high of 9.1% (highest since 1Q16). BCS Global Markets on November 20 argued that loan growth allows TCS to build up net interest income and offset CoR pressure, seeing the results as positive. Net interest income beat the consensus by 4%, with net interest margin at 21.6%.
Russian private ​Saint Petersburg Bank​ reported flat year-on-year growth and 7% quarter-on-quarter decline in net profit to RUB0.2bn ​under IFRS in 3Q19, making a ROE of 10.5% and meeting consensus expectations. As reported by ​bne IntelliNews,​ previously the bank recovered from the one-off trading loss seen in 1Q19, and posted stable growth under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) in ​9M19 as its online development strategy remained on track​. In 3Q19 under IFRS the bank showed strong growth of net interest income (10% q/q and 6% y/y) on the back of 7% growth in gross loans. Net interest margin added 33bp q/q to 3.7%.
8.2 ​Central Bank policy rate
There were no rating actions in November after the CBR cut rates by 50bp in October. There is one more monetary policy meeting in December where analysts expect the CBR to cut again.
The board of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) decided to cut the key interest rate by whopping 50bp (basis points) to 6.5% at its regular monetary policy meeting on October 25, the biggest cut of the year and marking the start of a bolder than expected easing.
74​ RUSSIA Country Report​ December 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com