Sberbank shareholders will consider in June the possibility of an additional share sale, not because they need more capital but because they want the option of being able to raise it quickly, according to the agenda for the meeting.
The company's supervisory board on Tuesday approved the agenda for the shareholders meeting, and on May 15 the board will consider the size and other details of the sale, spokeswoman Irina Kibina said.
The decision does not mean that Sberbank will move to sell shares immediately after the meeting -- management just wants the sale approved in advance so they will have the opportunity to sell shares quickly if the need arises, she said.
Organizing an extraordinary shareholders meeting at Sberbank, which has some 240,000 shareholders, is complicated and time consuming, Kibina said. If shareholders approve a secondary issue, only a decision from the supervisory board would be required to sell the shares.
Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, is controlled by the state through the Central Bank, which owns 57.6 percent. Its current charter capital is 67.76 billion rubles ($2.02 billion), with 21.6 billion ordinary shares and 1 billion privileged shares with a nominal value of 3 rubles. Sberbank also has 7.413 billion ordinary shares that have not been placed.
The size of an additional share issue will be difficult to determine, even in May, because the situation is changing every month, a member of Sberbank's advisory board said. Most likely, several proposals will be prepared ahead of the meeting and a real discussion will be held, he said.
Sberbank senior vice president Denis Bugrov said in February that in the first half and most likely in the second half of 2009, the company will not need a capital boost. If reserves for bad debt reach 10 percent of Sberbank's credit portfolio, however, it would become necessary.
The bank expects that by the end of 2009 bad loan provisions will be between 5 and 7.5 percent of its portfolio, but it "had to pump all of its profit from the fourth and first quarters into reserves," Sberbank president German Gref said last week.
Bugrov said the provisions were currently 4 to 5 percent.
Sberbank is playing it safe, which looks like the right move, said Metropol analyst Mark Rubenstein.
"I don't really understand why a share sale came up now. It's not very good news for the market [because it will dilute the stakes of current shareholders]," said Natalya Orlova, chief economist at Alfa Bank, adding that banks have also been offered subordinated loans and Finance Ministry bonds to help with capitalization.
Investors, however, were not dismayed. The company's shares gained 9.1 percent on the MICEX, while the exchange's broader index only rose 1.5 percent. The shares were also highly liquid, with 39.3 billion rubles of turnover -- three times as much as Gazprom's shares. Analysts tied the jump to a global enthusiasm for banking stocks after Goldman Sachs' unexpectedly positive results.
The company's supervisory board on Tuesday approved the agenda for the shareholders meeting, and on May 15 the board will consider the size and other details of the sale, spokeswoman Irina Kibina said.
The decision does not mean that Sberbank will move to sell shares immediately after the meeting -- management just wants the sale approved in advance so they will have the opportunity to sell shares quickly if the need arises, she said.
Organizing an extraordinary shareholders meeting at Sberbank, which has some 240,000 shareholders, is complicated and time consuming, Kibina said. If shareholders approve a secondary issue, only a decision from the supervisory board would be required to sell the shares.
Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, is controlled by the state through the Central Bank, which owns 57.6 percent. Its current charter capital is 67.76 billion rubles ($2.02 billion), with 21.6 billion ordinary shares and 1 billion privileged shares with a nominal value of 3 rubles. Sberbank also has 7.413 billion ordinary shares that have not been placed.
The size of an additional share issue will be difficult to determine, even in May, because the situation is changing every month, a member of Sberbank's advisory board said. Most likely, several proposals will be prepared ahead of the meeting and a real discussion will be held, he said.
Sberbank senior vice president Denis Bugrov said in February that in the first half and most likely in the second half of 2009, the company will not need a capital boost. If reserves for bad debt reach 10 percent of Sberbank's credit portfolio, however, it would become necessary.
The bank expects that by the end of 2009 bad loan provisions will be between 5 and 7.5 percent of its portfolio, but it "had to pump all of its profit from the fourth and first quarters into reserves," Sberbank president German Gref said last week.
Bugrov said the provisions were currently 4 to 5 percent.
Sberbank is playing it safe, which looks like the right move, said Metropol analyst Mark Rubenstein.
"I don't really understand why a share sale came up now. It's not very good news for the market [because it will dilute the stakes of current shareholders]," said Natalya Orlova, chief economist at Alfa Bank, adding that banks have also been offered subordinated loans and Finance Ministry bonds to help with capitalization.
Investors, however, were not dismayed. The company's shares gained 9.1 percent on the MICEX, while the exchange's broader index only rose 1.5 percent. The shares were also highly liquid, with 39.3 billion rubles of turnover -- three times as much as Gazprom's shares. Analysts tied the jump to a global enthusiasm for banking stocks after Goldman Sachs' unexpectedly positive results.