A Sberbank cash dispenser. "We trust you!... Accessible mortgage"
Photo: Oleg Harseev
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Sberbank Not a Capitalization Leader
The Savings Bank of Russia (Sberbank), Russia's largest bank, is no longer one of the top 3 Russian companies in stock market capitalization. Its capitalization has fallen 21 percent since the beginning of the year, due to the mortgage crisis, which has made financial organizations a riskier investment than previously. Sberbank has been the fourth largest bank by capitalization until its secondary stock distribution last year, which boosted it to third place, following Gazprom and Rosneft. In June and July of last year and January and February of this year, it even exceeded Rosneft in capitalization.
On March 25, Sberbank was in third place by capitalization on the Russian market, surpassing LUKOIL by $2.5 billion. The next day, however, LUKOIL overtook it by $445 million, with LUKOIL worth $67.36 billion and Sberbank worth $66.91 billion at the end of trading on March 26. Yesterday, that difference increased by 7 percent to $5.15 billion. Gazprom remains in first place, with capitalization of $300 billion. Rosneft ranks second with $95.9 billion.
Sberbank stock has been declining in price since last November. It is now worth 17.43 percent less than it cost at the time of its SPO. It sank below the price of its IPO in January. By world standards, however, Sberbank is holding up well to the financial crisis. VTB stock costs 37 percent less than at the time of its IPO, dropping below that point last August.
LUKOIL prices were helped along by the announcement by Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin that the tax burden on oil companies may be eased in 2009. Analysts began predicting steep price rises for oil company stock. Deutsche Bank predicted that LUKOIL stock would rise 45.84 percent this year to $124.70, and Credit Suisse predicted a 57.89-percent rise to $135.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 01, 2008
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