Sberbank's first half net profit up 173 pct to 176 bln rbls

Russia's top lender Sberbank saw its first half 2011 net profit soar 173 percent year-on-year to 176.1 billion rubles ($6.1 billion), to IFRS due to a higher operating income and net recovery of loan impairment provisions, the lender said in a statement on Tuesday. The bank's revenues came primarily from core banking operations, with net interest income and net fee and commission income accounting for 92 percent of total operating income. Net interest income increased 10.2 percent to 268.9 billion rubles due to a change in the structure of interest-earning assets and improved pricing on deposits. Net fee and commission income rose 12.9 percent to 64.1 billion rubles driven by a variety of fee-generating operations, especially those with bank cards and insurance policies. The lender's net gains on operations with securities fell 18.9 percent to 7.3 billion rubles. The bank's loan portfolio increased by 10.2 percent with loans to individuals growing 11.2 percent to 1,467.3 billion rubles and corporate loans increasing 7.5 percent to 5,239.6 billion rubles as of 30 June 2011. Sberbank's loan quality improved with non-performing loans falling to 445.2 billion rubles as of 30 June 2011 from 452.3 billion rubles as of 31 December 2010. The security portfolio shrank 17.3 percent to 1,508.8 billion rubles with federal government bonds accounting for almost 50 percent of the portfolio.