Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, which bought the Serbian branch of the Austrian Volksbank in 2011, plans to bring in new banking capital to Serbia.
This is expected to happen in September, while it will also begin to operate under its own name in the country by the end of the year, according to Russian business daily Vedomosti.
An article, carried by the Wednesday edition of the Belgrade-based Politika newspaper, further states that with a market capitalization of USD 62.4 billion dollars, the Russian bank has become one of the biggest 20 banks in the world by capitalization. The Russian bank, founded in 1841, is currently sharing 17th and 18th place by the criteria with U.S. Bancorp, leaving other giants such as BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank behind, while looking into the back of HSBC.
According to Vedomosti, one of the strategic goals of the bank is to be among top ten biggest banks in the world in 2014.
To accomplish this, its value should increase by around USD 15 billion, almost one-fourth of its current value.
Sberbank has a high stable financial performance, is buying a large number of assets and Russian portfolio managers are confident the bank will soon become a global player.
Source B92
