Sberbank to issue additional shares

Russia's largest bank state-owned Sberbank says it plans to issue additional shares ahead of its main competitor on the market Vneshtorgbank, which, in its turn, plans to hold an IPO early next year.

But speaking to Business Today, the Chairman of Sberbank said the proposed share issue will not reach the maximum of ten billion dollars as previously expected:“Well, certainly, if the decision would be taken – the volume would be quite significant although not so high as you mentioned. And regarding the demand for shares, I bet it would be very high because nowadays the free float of shares is rather limited. They (Sberbank shares) are champions among the blue chips and investors are not selling them very willingly. So besides other positive effects of the public placement, we'll achieve the goal to enlarge our free float, to increase the liquidity of our shares market.”And earlier Andrey Kazmin told journalists Sberbank expects Record-High profits this year. He said the bank's net profit would reach at least 2.8 billion dollars. Sberbank's chairman also said it had closed a deal to buy a Kazakh bank and is in talks to acquire a Ukrainian bank. Kazmin said the acquisition process turned out to be more complicated than expected but expansion was still in the bank's plans.