Anton Karamzin: "Sberbank" is interested in the Romanian market

Sberbank rules out the acquisition of a European bank facing problems, but is watching the Romanian market to expand its presence in Eastern Europe, said Anton Karamzin, the CFO of the largest banking group in Russia.

"We would not make any giant acquisition, whether we are interested in a specific market or not. Compact acquisitions for us will be at more or less the same price level as we already showed", said Karamzin, quoted by Reuters, according to Agerpres. He added that, aside from the bank"s declared interest in Poland and Turkey, Sberbank is also interested in the Romanian market, after foregoing to acquire the Romanian division of Volksbank International.

By the end of the year, the Russian state may sell 7.6% of Sberbank, an operation which has been scheduled for this month but was postponed after the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis affected banks stocks in the region, added Karamzin.

"If a bank is on sale and it is big, the question is how big is its problem.

The status of global bank makes no sense in and of itself - what"s the point if 60 percent of your business makes losses?", the financial director of Sberbank said for Reuters.

CEO German Gref, former Economy Minister and current CEO of Sberbank, launched a growth strategy to diversify the bank"s operations.

Sberbank bough investment bank Troika Dialog for one billion dollars, and also acquired Volksbank International, the Eastern Europe division of Austrian banking group Oesterreichische Volksbanken (ÖVAG), for 585 million Euros (800 million dollars).

Sberbank, with over 310 billion in assets, also operates in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine.

The strategic goal of Sberbank is to have at least 5% of its profit come from abroad by 2014 and Karamzin, former commercial director at Morgan Stanley, said its approach would be incremental.

On September 8th, Sberbank and the shareholders of Volksbank International AG signed the agreement by which Sberbank fully acquired VBI; the deal did not include Volksbank Romania. The completion of the deal was subject to certain terms, including removing Volksbank Romania from VBI.

The deal is subject to the approval of Russia, Austria and other jurisdictions in Central and Eastern Europe where VBI operates. The parties expect the deal to be concluded by the end of 2011.