MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian lender TCS Group Holding on Friday reported its 2021 net profit surged 43% in rouble terms to hit a new annual record, but said it was now focused on making sure its systems work as usual.
Last year’s net profit of 63.4 billion roubles ($561 million) came at around $860 million in dollar terms when calculated against the rouble’s 2021 average rate of 73.65.
The operator of Russia’s largest online bank Tinkoff, which had 20.8 million customers by year end, has not been sanctioned but trading of its London-listed global depositary receipts was suspended on Thursday along with several Russia-based companies.
“While we are reporting strong results for 2021, our immediate focus now lies in making sure all our systems work as usual,” Co-CEOs of TCS Group Oliver Hughes and Pavel Fedorov said in a statement. “We have all hands on deck. We have ample rouble and FX liquidity and a solid capital position.”
Russia’s banking sector has been a particular target of sanctions, with major banks excluded from the SWIFT global messaging network, making it hard for lenders and companies to make and receive payments.
Western nations are seeking to isolate Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, something Russia calls a “special military operation”.
TCS said it may, at any time and from time to time, buy its outstanding debt in open-market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, or otherwise.
“Such repurchases, if any, will be upon such terms and at such prices as we may determine, and will depend on prevailing market conditions, our liquidity requirements, contractual restrictions and other factors,” TCS said.
Full-year revenue grew by 40% to 273.9 billion roubles and the bank’s return on equity increased to 42.5% in 2021 from 50.6% a year earlier.
Its share price had plunged over 90% since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine last week by the time trading was halted.
The management team will address analysts and investors at 1400 GMT.
($1 = 113.0000 roubles)
(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow; editing by David Goodman, Jason Neely and Tomasz Janowski)