UPDATE 3-Sberbank braces for bad loans, says crisis blow to come

*Loan loss provisions soar to 90.7 billion roubles

*No comment on Opel bid

(Adds CFO investor call)

By Melissa Akin and Oksana Kobzeva

MOSCOW, July 14 (Reuters) - First quarter profit plunged 98 percent at Russia's largest lender, Sberbank (SBER03.MM), as the state-controlled bank booked losses on an expected wave of loan losses just as Western peers were returning to health.

"Even if the rest of the world is seeing more green shoots, the structure of the Russian economy is such that 2010 and throughout the rest of the year is still going to be quite difficult," Chief Financial Officer Anton Karamzin told a conference call with investors.

Sberbank said on Tuesday it had increased its loan loss provisions twelve-fold to 90.7 billion roubles ($2.7 billion) from the year-ago period, driving net profit down to 600 million roubles in the first quarter.

The first quarter results stood in sharp contrast to a 33 percent surge in profit at Goldman Sachs (GS.N), which fed Western stock market optimism that the worst of the crisis was behind the industry.

Earlier in the day, Karamzin declined to be drawn by reporters on Sberbank's contribution to a Magna-led (MGa.TO) bid for GM's former German unit Opel GMGMQ.PK as rival bidders put forward their cash offers [ID:nnL0323163] [ID:nLE587477A].

The global financial crisis came late to Russia, whose banks operate in a cash economy with little exposure to Western-style subprime loans and consumer debt, and felt the full force of the crisis only when global markets seized up in September.

Economists say Russia's first recession in a decade -- which has seen industrial production plunge 17 percent in May and unemployment hit 10 percent, may be near the bottom but Karamzin said Sberbank would feel the worst effects in months to come.

"Bilateral (corporate) loans are 80 pct of the balance sheet. That is where the problems in the real sector filter through to NPLs with a lag of three, six, sometimes more months," Karamzin said.

"This crisis has only been around for 6-9 months in the real sector," he added.

Sberbank has restructured 6.5 percent of its corporate loan portfolio and 5 percent of retail loans, helping to avert classification as non-performing, he said.

GOOD WORK