Samara Bank revealed the direction of regional expansion

The Samara bank Solidarnost, which announced plans for regional expansion back in the summer, outlined the direction of geographic expansion: in 2007, five representative offices will be opened in the Volga region. According to experts, the bank will need $10 million to build a full-fledged branch network. At the same time, they note that it will be difficult for Solidarity to compete with the largest Russian banks at the regional level. For the first time, OJSC CB Solidarnost announced plans for regional expansion in the summer of this year; the decision on the new strategy of the credit institution was made at the board of directors on July 14. “If we take financial indicators, we have long been a federal-level bank,” explained the chairman of the bank’s board of directors, Alexey Titov, for this decision. Including territorially.” However, the direction of expansion became known only at the end of November, when it was announced that next year five branches would be opened in the Volga region, as well as representative offices of the bank in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The bank refused to clarify the details of the branch development of the credit institution. According to Kommersant, the amount of investment will be determined at the end of December this year, and then it will become known in what format Solidarity will begin regional promotion. Currently, forms such as “branch”, “additional office” and “representative office” are being considered (they vary in the scope of powers. - “Kommersant”). According to a source in the credit institution, most likely, Solidarity will take into account existing experience of work outside the Samara region. Today the bank has representative offices in Kostroma and Cheboksary. “The work of these divisions in the bank is assessed as successful, the costs of opening them have already paid off, and in Kostroma - ahead of schedule,” said press secretary of OJSC CB Solidarnost Alexey Sorokin.
Commercial bank "Solidarity" began its activities in October 1990 and today is one of the largest financial institutions in the Volga region. The bank has 6 branches (in the Samara region), 21 additional offices, 2 credit and cash offices, 5 operating cash desks outside the cash desk, as well as representative offices in Cheboksary and Kostroma. The bank's balance sheet as of July 1, 2006 amounted to 21.558 billion rubles, capital - 1.625 billion rubles, deposits of individuals reached 3.734 billion rubles, loans to legal entities - 12.960 billion rubles, consumer loans amounted to 1.575 billion rubles. The bank has issued more than 125 thousand cards. The bank's shareholders are Alexey Titov - 44.01%, Andrey Bogdanov - 3.46%, Oleg Sinitsyn - 4.34%, Mikhail Mashura - 2.0%, Rodion Kovalev - 6.97%, Avista CJSC (a group of persons with Titov) - 12.74%, Interleasing CJSC (a group of persons with Sinitsyn) - 5.71%, Novokuibyshevsky Oil Refinery OJSC - 1.27%.
Today, Solidarity is studying the market of the regions bordering the Samara region - the Ulyanovsk, Saratov, Orenburg regions, as well as the Republic of Tatarstan. “Solidarity has long wanted to expand beyond the Samara region, as managers and owners of the bank have repeatedly stated,” said Kommersant’s interlocutor in one of the Samara banks. “In these regions, especially in the Ulyanovsk and Orenburg regions, unlike Samara, the banking network is not so developed; many banks are represented through agents, so the market is still ready to accept new players.” As the manager of the IMB branch in Samara, Alexander Mokry, said, “work is already underway with the corporate clientele of the Ulyanovsk and Orenburg regions, but for now it is carried out through the bank’s branch in Samara or through the central office in Moscow.” Many other credit institutions follow a similar scheme.
According to a source close to the situation, in the first half of the year Solidarity will open a representative office in Saratov, which was confirmed by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation in the Saratov region, but emphasized that “no official documents (the persons of the head of the representative office of the chief accountant, as well as the premises, are agreed with the Central Bank) not received yet." The National Bank of Tatarstan reported that there were no applications from Solidarity.
According to Finam Investment Company estimates, to implement expansion plans, Solidarnost will need to invest at least $10 million in opening branches and another $1-2 million in marketing. According to the director of the Samara branch of OJSC AKB Rosbank, Alexander Shevyakov, “such a branch network can become profitable in the third year of operation.” Experts are convinced that Solidarity's expansion through the acquisition of local banks is unlikely. “The scenario for purchasing assets will be the most difficult - you will have to buy several banks at once, and these are quite expensive assets. With this model, you will have to spend at least $20-25 million. However, it has significant advantages in terms of quickly gaining market share. In all other cases, you will have to fight for it,” says Dmitry Tuzhba, an analyst at Finam Investment Company. Experts have doubts about the construction of a branch network. “It is unlikely that the bank will delegate powers to these regions by opening independent branches,” says Alexander Shevyakov. “So they most likely will not be able to compete with federal banks in terms of speed of decision-making.” In general, according to Mr. Shevyakov, “the chances of any Samara bank to take a significant share in the market of Orenburg and Ulyanovsk are small. Outside the “native” region, the credit institution will not be able to use the established connections and client base, which in the Samara region provide the bank with a consistently good position.” At the same time, experts do not rule out that Solidarity may enter the regions for existing corporate clients. “If a bank has clients with whom they worked in Samara, and they, for example, are expanding their business, then, most likely, they will all receive loans from the same Solidarity, receiving some preferences. This would be a rational scheme for expanding the bank’s geography,” says a source in the Samara branch of one of the federal banks.
Experts assess the opening of representative offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg as an image-building step. “If we talk about the bank’s chances of opening branches in the capitals, then it will be able to do this. But forming a client base will be much more difficult. It is unlikely that in a saturated market, “Solidarity” will be able to offer the same Moscow clients any significant advantages compared to market leaders with strong brands and a developed network of branches,” says Dmitry Tuzhba.
Elena Kolycheva

Kommersant (Samara) No. 223 dated November 29, 2006

"Solidarity" is rushing to the provinces