VTB expects overseas subsidiaries without Ukrainian bank to post profit in 2015
MOSCOW. Feb 16 (Interfax) - VTB expects its overseas subsidiaries, not including the one in Ukraine, to turn profit in 2015, the bank's senior vice president, Mikhail Yakunin, told Interfax.
"If you look at results for ten months, the overseas banks, except the Ukrainian one, brought us 8.2 billion rubles net profit. Ukraine is a separate story, it's impossible to predict this situation. Return on equity for the international network without Ukraine is more than 10% on average, and this is a good result," Yakunin said.
"For now we're planning profit [for 2015], but life's a complicated thing. And this is all without Ukraine, of course," he said.
VTB is not planning to change its international business development strategy, despite the sanctions and the challenging economic situation, he said.
"We're currently focusing more on margins, on profit and not on asset growth at any price. This is part of the strategy itself, and it is only strengthening in view of the geopolitical situation," he said.
Yakunin said the economies of most countries where the VTB group has a presence are in a fairly good state.
"The availability of an overseas network gives us a certain balance. If one of the economies is in difficulty at a certain moment in time, then other countries can balance this out as the whole world isn't subjected to the same influences all at once," he said.
Apart from efficiency, VTB is looking at funding-related issues. Banks have to be balanced, they need to attract liquidity on their own markets and distribute it there and then, "so we don't get the sort of situation where we get money from the parent bank and distribute it on a local market."
In the past year, VTB has recapitalized its overseas network to the tune of $200 million.
"Our new strategy was worked out before the sanctions came into effect, so of course, in some areas we are now conducting a fresh analysis of the wisdom of exiting. Take, for example, India - our board decided on an exit in the summer. But now, in view of the geopolitical situation, we're carrying out an additional analysis before we actually do so, and we might come up with a different proposal for this territory," Yakunin said.
He said VTB did not intend to pull out of any countries where it has a presence this year.
"Firstly, our whole geopolitics and economics has changed. Secondly there's no sense in pulling out at any price. Even if we were to exit from somewhere, this would have to be economically justified, we would have to get some intelligible money out of this," he said.