After the recent quarterly results, it's safe to say that the outlook for Sberbank (OTCPK:SBRCY) is becoming less and less favorable. The bank faced a sharp downturn in operating environment, and the only way to support profits in the near term is to use the reserves freed after the Denizbank deal. Even though Sberbank has competitive positioning and undemanding valuations, in the absence of clear long-term growth prospects, I lower the stock's rating to neutral.
Q3 Results
The results of the quarter were affected by the recognition of a loss of 73.3 billion