Sberbank head says no interest in Dresdner purchase

By Dmitry Sergeyev

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Sberbank (SBER03.MM), Russia's largest lender, has no interest in acquiring Dresdner Bank's investment banking business its chief executive said on Monday, denying a report by Russian news agency Interfax.

"It's a red herring, which has no basis to it. I cannot think of a single argument in favour of acquiring this bank for Sberbank's business," Sberbank CEO German Gref, previously Russia's economy minister, told a news conference.

Gref's comments followed a report by Interfax on April 10 in which the agency quoted unnamed sources as saying Sberbank wanted to buy Dresdner's corporate and investment banking activities, known as Dresdner Kleinwort.

After the Interfax report, a source close to the bank told Reuters that Dresdner was among several potential acquisition targets of Sberbank, which may instead opt to expand organically.

Dresdner is part of German insurer Allianz (ALVG.DE), which declined to comment on last week's report.

Allianz previously played down market speculation that it may sell either Dresdner Bank or Dresdner Kleinwort, but last month said it would split the bank in two to play a more active role in industry consolidation.

State-controlled Sberbank, sheltered from the financial woes affecting global peers by its lack of collateralised debt obligations, is planning to grow into 20 countries within five years and views the market as ripe for acquisitions.

Gref, however, said he would be cautious in making deals.

"We will create an investment business, but first we must select a suitable path," he told reporters.

"I don't agree with the word 'expansion', as there's no talk about throwing away billions of dollars. I'm a very tight-fisted person."

Thanks to its unrivalled branch network in Russia, spanning the country's 11 time zones, Sberbank has a very strong deposit base and its leverage is small compared with domestic rivals.

The bank has forecast 2007 net profit as having reached 100 billion roubles ($4.25 billion), which would be a 33 percent rise from the previous year's $3.2 billion.

Gref also said Sberbank had launched a pilot credit card programme and would start open sale of these from July 1. The bank plans to issue 300,000 credit cards this year and sees its potential client base at more than 20 million.

(Writing by Robin Paxton; Editing by David Hulmes)