VTB says 2022 losses to exceed 2009, July, August profitable

VLADIVOSTOK, Sep 6 (PRIME) -- The 2022 losses of Russia's second biggest lender VTB will exceed those for 2009, but the bank earned a profit in July and August, CEO Andrei Kostin said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

"July and August were profitable. We hope so far that the third and fourth quarters will be positive in operating terms. But of course, the first half of the year caused significant losses. I think the losses will top those in 2009, when we had a net loss of U.S. $2 billion (at 2009 exchange rates)," Kostin said.

The bank plans to launch lending in the currencies of the friendly states in 2022, there is mainly demand for yuans, he said.

The CEO separately said that VTB does not know the price of Otkritie Financial Corporation (FC) Bank acquisition, but the executives put it at hundreds of billion rubles.

"We are working hard on due diligence… We think we will not finish the work until the end of October and we will have time before the year end to finish the deal if we agree on the figures," Kostin said.

According to the CEO, VTB has no plans of delisting from the Moscow Exchange.

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