Russia's Gazprombank puzzles analysts as NPLs stable

MOSCOW, July 2 (Reuters) - Gazprombank, the banking arm of Russian state energy company Gazprom (GAZP.MM), puzzled analysts on Thursday by showing its share of non-performing loans (NPLs) stayed unchanged in the first quarter of 2009.

Top Russian banks such as state-controlled Sberbank (SBER03.MM) and VTB (VTBR.MM) are struggling with losses as bad loans rise.

Gazprombank, the country's No. 3 lender, reported on Thursday the share of NPLs stayed at 1.5 percent of its total loan portfolio at March 31, unchanged from the end of 2008, while total loans to corporate clients rose 37 percent according to international accounting standards. "The low level of NPLs looks fairly odd. Gazprombank works with big corporations and likely has restructured a hefty part of its portfolio," Mikhail Shlemov, an analyst at VTB Capital said.

Shlemov said the revaluation of foreign currency loans may have helped pump up the volume of lending on paper as the rouble devalued in the first quarter.

"The bank has restructured part of its loan portfolio to ease the pressure on its capital," Leonid Slipchenko, analyst at Uralsib said.

Gazprombank said in a press release that a conservative lending policy helped it preserve the quality of loans in its portfolio but added provisions rose slightly to 4.0 percent in the first quarter from 3.6 percent as of Dec. 31.

"The capital adequacy ratio of Gazprombank is not too high. So the bank is trying to avoid a possible increase of provisions," Shlemov said.

The bank reported its capital adequacy ratio has risen to 10.4 percent as of March 31.

Sberbank (SBER03.MM), Russia's biggest lender, has said its profit for the first quarter was effectively erased as provisions for bad loans continued to grow. [ID:nLM400313]

VTB, the country's No.2 lender, said on Monday bad loans in its credit portfolio had tripled since the start of the year to 6 percent. [ID:nLT177018]

Russian banks need up to $80 billion in extra capital this year, according to Fitch rating agency estimates, as in an pessimistic scenario, non-performing loans (NPL) would reach up to 40 percent of banks' loan portfolio by year-end. [ID:nLU501949]

(Reporting by Dmitry Sergeyev and Oksana Kobzeva)