MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russian state-owned savings bank Sberbank plans to float its shares on the London Stock Exchange soon, a senior bank official said Tuesday.
Alla Alyoshkina, the bank's first deputy board chairman, said at a meeting with investors: "The bank plans to enter the London Stock Exchange, but we are not ready to disclose exact dates."
She also said Sberbank is ready to spend $150 million to buy Ukraine's National Reserve Bank, double the amount originally planned.
Alyoshkina said Sberbank's net profit in the first half of the current year could grow 25% year-on-year, to 51 billion rubles ($1.96 bln), exceeding 100 billion rubles by the end of the year.
The bank's net profit as of June 1 stood at 44.4 billion rubles ($1.7 billion), as compared to 37.1 billion rubles ($1.4 bln) for the same period of last year.
Alyoshkina also said the bank plans to increase its share of the corporate loan market from 31.8% in 2006 to 36-37% in 2009.
