Russia's Sberbank targets half of revenue from non-banking by 2030

MOSCOW: Sberbank expects its non-banking business to reach 5% of its revenues in 2023 and as much as half of its total in a decade, as it focuses on e-commerce and other online ventures, two sources told Reuters.

Russia's largest lender has invested some $2 billion on acquisitions and IT as it attempts to join Apple and Google on the big tech stage.

Sberbank plans to tell investors on Nov. 30 that non-banking, or ecosystem as it calls the business, will account for 5% of its total revenue in 2023 and grow to nearly a half of its total by 2030, two sources close to its supervisory board said.

The bank's return-on-equity (RoE), one of key measures of profitability, is forecast at 17% in 2023, one of the two sources said. A third source, also close to Sberbank's supervisory board, confirmed this forecast.

The sources did not say why the RoE target is smaller than the third quarter's 22.8%.

Sberbank, in which the Russian state owns a stake of 50% plus one share, declined to comment.

Non-banking, which includes Sberbank's joint venture with internet company Mail.Ru, the Rambler media group and Okko online cinema along with some other assets, currently accounts for around 1% of its revenue, with the rest from its core financial business.

Sberbank's ambitions were dealt a blow this year when its partnership with Russia's leading internet firm Yandex, its first major e-commerce push and part of its ecosystem strategy, collapsed over strategy disagreements.

Sberbank was also in talks to buy a large minority stake in online retailer Ozon , Russia's second biggest, but the deal also fell apart amid disagreements, sources told Reuters earlier this year.

Ozon has instead raised nearly $1 billion this month in what turned out to be the largest initial public (IPO) offering by a Russian company since 2017.