OREANDA-NEWS. June 03, 2009. Sberbank expects massive sell-offs of real estate by banks in autumn against the backdrop of a rise in bad debts. “Many banks could face major problems in autumn. And they will begin selling off real estate as its owners do now”, Director of Construction Project Finance at Sberbank Alexei Chuvin said.

 Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin projected the second wave of the crisis due to massive arrears in loan repayment. The Deposit Insurance Agency also expected the situation to aggravate by the end of the year. However, then officials said the situation is under control and debt restructuring took the heat off the situation. Meanwhile, Chuvin believes that “the coming autumn will be hard”.

Banks will launch sell-offs in order to clean their balances overloaded with non-performing loans. “Banks will be unable to stand it and sell off all assets. There will be competition for liquidity. I believe that auctions to sell off assets will begin in autumn.” Chuvin said that Sberbank’s credit portfolio to developers amounts to RUB 600 bn, with 0.7% arrears. Sberbank has already restructured loans worth RUB 18 bn. “There are only two borrowers out of 130 loan agreements whose collaterals have been assigned under ownership of Sberbank Capital: Macromir and Capital Group”, Chuvin said.