PSB ANNOUNCES 2009 FACTORING BUSINESS RESULTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 25, 2010 --

Moscow, February 25, 2010 – The volume of accounts receivable assigned to Promsvyazbank (PSB) in 2009 reached RUB 122 billion, while the volume of funds provided by PSB to its clients exceeded RUB 85 billion. According to preliminary consolidated IFRS accounts as at 1 January 2010, PSB’s factoring portfolio totaled RUB 26.4 billion. Q4 2009 was particularly strong as the volume of accounts receivable was up 25% year-on-year and up 10% against the same period of the pre-crisis year of 2007. In 2009, PSB entered into more than 400 factoring agreements and processed approximately 675,000 deals with 2,900 debtors. According to YE 2009 results, the share of PSB’s regional branches in the total volume of accounts receivable assigned to the Bank was 42%, with the Central, Volga, and Southern Federal Districts showing the strongest results.

PSB maintained its leadership in the Russian market of international factoring services throughout 2009 (according to own estimates; and according to the Association of Factoring Companies for Q3 2009). PSB total export and import factoring turnover reached approximately €55 million. In 2009, the number of international factoring partners increased from 16 to 29 countries. Factoring relations with China developed most strongly. According to Factors Chain International (FCI), PSB share of the export factoring market in Russia (a two-factor model) increased by 23 percentage points to 96% in 2009.

“Last year we increased the intensity and efficiency of our operations, while en enhanced risk management enabled us to improve the quality of our loan portfolio”, says Victor Nosov, Head of PSB’s Factoring Department. “In 2010, we will target pre-crisis performance levels and will strive to maintain our leadership in the market through a better customer service, flexible pricing, new products and strong regional promotion”.

Note for editor:

OJSC Promsvyazbank (PSB), founded in 1995, is one of the leading privately-owned Russian banks, with total assets of RUB 414.5 billion, and total capital of RUB49.3 billion under IFRS as of 1 July 2009. Holding company Promsvyaz Capital B. V. owns 84.68% of the Bank, and Commerzbank Auslandsbanken Holding AG, a subsidiary of the second-largest German bank Commerzbank AG owns the remaining 15.32%. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is set to become a new shareholder in Promsvyazbank. The corresponding agreements have been signed in November 2009 between EBRD, Promsvyazbank and its existing shareholders. PSB has the following international credit ratings: “Ba2” from Moody’s Investors Service; “B” from Standard & Poor's; “B+” from Fitch Ratings. As of 1 February 2010, PSB had a network of about 240 points of sale in Russia, including 48 branches, a foreign branch in Cyprus, and representative offices in China, India and Ukraine.
Promsvyazbank has been operating in the factoring market since 2002, providing its customers with a broad array of high-tech finan

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