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Russia’s Sberbank fears that its assets in Belarus may depreciate

A further deterioration of the economic situation in Belarus may lead to the depreciation of Sberbank’s assets in the country, the Russian largest bank says in a report.

“Since March 2011, there has been a deterioration in the macroeconomic situation in Belarus… which is accompanied by the considerable depreciation of the national currency, high inflation, and a large trade deficit,” the report says. “There are increasingly more withdrawals of money from bank accounts, which leads to a liquidity deficit in the banking sector.”

Sberbank is one of the main organizers of placements of Eurobonds and the Belarusian government's bonds in the Russian market in 2010 and 2011.

Sberbank is a leading financial institution in Central and Eastern Europe and was among the world's 10 most profitable banks in 2010.

Sberbank has a 97.91-percent stake in Belarus' BPS-Bank.

Under an investment agreement signed in Minsk on December 11, 2009 together with the sale contract, Sberbank was to provide a $2-billion credit line to BPS-Bank and contribute up to $350 million to its authorized capital stock by 2014.

Sberbank has already invested nearly $1 billion in the Belarusian economy, helped the country enter foreign financial markets, and financed the export of Belarusian-made goods to Russia. //BelaPAN