OREANDA-NEWS. Sberbank will issue its 2Q10 IFRS results tomorrow, followed by a conference call on Thursday, 26 August, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE Financial Corporation.

View: We expect the bank’s net profit to drop 22% QoQ to RUB33.9bn. The decline was driven by a contraction of its net interest margin from 8.4% (in 1Q10) to 7.1%, which is a function of the long funding maturity profile. Given the virtually flat loan growth, we believe NPLs increased from 8.9% in 1Q10 to 9.3%, with provisioning charges remaining at elevated levels. The key issues on the conference call will be the bank’s ability to demonstrate lending growth and management’s outlook for NIM development going forward. Moreover, while most of credit quality issues have been overcome, provisioning expectations will remain crucial for the bank’s bottom line in coming quarters.

Valuation and Action: Sberbank trades on a 2010 P/BV of 2.0x and a 2011 P/BV of 1.6x. We like the stock at these levels and reaffirm our BUY recommendation and a target price of USD4.10/share.