Sberbank reported a better-than-expected net profit of 24.4 billion rubles ($834 million) for 2009 and saw improvements on bad loans in the fourth quarter.
The state-controlled bank said full-year profit was down about 75 percent from 97.7 billion rubles in 2008 after it took huge provisions against bad debt during the worst of the financial crisis.
But it said growth of nonperforming loans slowed to a crawl in the final three months of the year, indicating that the group is poised for a recovery in 2010.
Analysts expected Sberbank to report full-year net profit of 20.8 billion rubles.
"We consider the news neutral. … [although] higher than expected net income may become a moderately positive factor to move Sberbank's stocks up, in our opinion," said analysts at Rye, Man and Gor Securities.
Fourth-quarter net profit rose more than threefold to 14.1 billion rubles, from 4.2 billion rubles last year, ahead of analyst forecasts for 10.4 billion.
Sberbank has previously said it hopes to bounce back to pre-crisis profitability this year with a net profit of no less than 100 billion rubles as provisions start to fade.
"Provision charges for loan impairments for 2009 totaled 388.9 billion rubles, a four-fold increase year on year. Yet in the fourth quarter the provision charge for loan impairment decreased by 20.2 percent compared with the third quarter," Sberbank said in Thursday's statement.
The financial crisis forced many overleveraged borrowers to default on loans, devastating the banking industry.
Sberbank's nonperforming loans make up about 8.5 percent of its lending portfolio, while the Central Bank has repeatedly said the 10 percent level is the highest for banks to maintain profitability.
The company also said it gained 36.5 billion rubles from securities operations in 2009.
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