Sberbank Europe Group

Sberbank Europe AG was established in 2012 after Sberbank of Russia acquired Volksbank International AG (VBI) and rebranded it into Sberbank Europe. The deal involved all VBI assets – banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Slovakia, apart from Volksbank Romania. Société Générale and J.P.Morgan acted as financial advisors to Sberbank. Troika Dialog also advised on the transaction. The deal price was €505 million,[1] which is 1.0x VBI book value (excluding Romania). Organizational transformation and group restructuring were exercised during that period. The regional headquarter of Sberbank Europe Group was decided to be in Vienna, Austria.

In 2013, Sberbank Europe received a full banking license in Austria and obtained its first Fitch Ratings investment grade BBB-[2] Fitch affirmed its rating of Sberbank as ‘BB+’ with positive outreach in 2017. In 2019, Fitch upgraded the Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of Sberbank Europe to ‘BBB-‘.

By 2014, rebranding of Volksbank subsidiaries into Sberbank was fully completed. Sberbank Europe received a syndicated loan of €350m and launched Sberbank Direct in Germany, an online direct bank with basic retail products. Sberbank Direct gained €1.7 bn in deposits by 2015. In the same year Sberbank Europe sold 99.5% stake of its Slovak subsidiary, Sberbank Slovensko, to Penta Investments.[3] The purchase price of the subsidiary was decided to be confidential. Sberbank Europe AG completed the Comprehensive Assessment consisting of the Asset Quality Review (AQR) and the Stress Test conducted by the European Central Bank.

In 2016, Sberbank finalized the deal on Slovak subsidiary sale and converted €370m of subordinated loans (Tier II capital) into Common Equity Tier I capital strengthening its capital structure. In December 2017, Sberbank Europe AG has completed the transaction to sell its stake of 99.9230% in PJSC «VS Bank» (Ukraine) to TAS Group.

In 2018, Sberbank Direct, a German subsidiary of Sberbank Europe, launched an online instant loan offer in Germany.

2019 became the most successful financial year in the history of Sberbank Europe. The bank generated a profit after tax of EUR 40.6 million.

Sberbank was awarded “Best Bill Payments & Presentment”, “Best Mobile Banking App” and “Best SMS/Text Banking” by Global Finance (magazine) in 2017. In 2018, the bank won in categories “Best Bank in CEE” by The Banker magazine, “Most Innovative Digital Bank in CEE” by Global Finance magazine [4] and "Strongest Banking Brand in the World" by Brand Finance Magazine.

Sberbank Europe Group fully belongs to Sberbank of Russia. The Central Bank of Russia is the founder and the principal shareholder of Sberbank owning 50% of the bank’s authorized capital plus one voting share, with the remaining 50% held by domestic and international investors.

The Management Board of Sberbank Europe AG consists currently of the following management board members:

• Sonja Sarközi, CEO
• Arndt Röchling, CFO
• Alexander Witte, CRO
• Aleksei Mikhailov, CTO

Sberbank Europe AG had also previously the following members of the Management Board:

• Stefan Zapotocky (Chief Corporate and Investment Banking Officer)
• Alexey Bogatov (CRO/CIO)
• Gerhard Randa, CEO
• Christian Kubitschek, CFO
• Axel Hummel, CEO
• Mark Arnold, CEO
• Igor Strehl (Chief Corporate and Investment Banking Officer)  
• András Hámori, Retail
• Markus Krause, CRO
• Valentin Mihov (Strategie)
• David O'Mahony (CIO / COO)  

The bank has 187 branches in Central and Eastern Europe with over 3,900 employees (as of HY 2020).

Sberbank Europe Group AG operations can be divided into three core businesses: Retail business, Large corporate & investment banking and Small and medium-sized enterprise business. Retail business involves the provision of mortgages and consumer loans, savings and pension products and digital banking programs. Large corporate & investment banking includes corporate, real estate and acquisition financing as well as trade finance and treasury products. Small and medium-sized enterprise business offers liquidity financing (Working Capital/Overdraft), investment financing (equipment/business facilities), Treasury finance products and transaction business support.

• Official website