Sberbank of Russia : registers six-fold rise in volume of investment deals in six months

Sberbank has closed investment deals, which amounted to more than RUB 60 bln in 1H20, that is six times higher than last year. The bank's investment deal portfolio increased by almost 40% and exceeded RUB 200 bln since the beginning of this year.

The majority of deals were signed in regions for the first time that shows the bank's successful implementation of the objective that was set last year on developing investment business in regions.

The majority of deals were closed in the Residential Real Estate sector in 1H20. Sberbank investment volume in this sector quadrupled, compared to 1H19, and exceeded RUB 30 bln. Project Bridge is still the most required product. It was launched in 2019 due to the increase in the demand for loan and investment products among developers after residential real estate project finance legislation was changed.

Oskar Ratsin, Vice President, Director of Investment Banking, Sberbank,

'Despite the difficult situation related to the pandemic, Sberbank investment deals show the growth of all key indexes this year.

We relate this growth to the launch of a project to systemize approaches to search, allocation and structure of shareholder risks in particular. We focus on the early identification of such deals, which enables to increase their number and quality. The bank investment department actively works on digital transformation of the investment business, introduces automatic processes of signing, accounting and supporting the deals. Our goal is to become the first investment unit in Russia that will introduce this technology.

In addition, today our business is focused on the regions, first of all, we want to make capital more affordable for companies across Russia. Recently, we opened a regional center for investment expertise in Yekaterinburg which enabled us to process smaller deals more efficiently.'