MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - VTB (RTS: VTBR) plans to double its portfolio of loans to companies in the military-industrial complex to about 600 billion rubles in 2013, management board director and head of the state lender's department for government and defense sector clients Valery Lukyanenko told reporters on Thursday.
"The size of the military-industrial complex portfolio is 310 billion rubles [as of the end of 2012]. We plan to double it," Lukyanenko said, adding that it is expected to grow to about 600 billion rubles by the end of 2013.
The bank increased this loan portfolio by 41% in 2012 from 220 billion rubles at the end of 2011. The amount of guarantees provided by the bank to industrial companies stood at 83 billion rubles at the end of 2012.
The bank's department for government and defense sector clients is responsible for sectors such as industry (including defense), space industry, specialized machine building, power engineering, the nuclear sector, the housing and public utilities sector and healthcare, and also works with government agencies, the Defense Ministry and state corporation Rostec.
Lukyanenko said that while in the military-industrial complex the bank plans to double its loan portfolio, in other sectors growth is expected to measure 20-22%. The overall loan portfolio for which his department is responsible could grow to 700 billion rubles by the end of 2013 after expanding by 60% to 439 billion rubles in 2012.
The share of bad debts in the portfolio of loans to state and defense sector companies amounted to 0.5% at the end of 2012. A loan to one company, wholly state owned Tekhnointorg, accounts for all of this bad debt, Lukyanenko said. VTB gave this company a loan of 14 billion rubles, 2.1 billion rubles of which it was unable to repay.
The share of delinquent debt in this loan portfolio is a tiny 0.006%, Lukyanenko said.
He also said that VTB's pricing policy in regard to interest rates on loans to companies in 2013 will remain the same as last year. The bank primarily extends loans at interest rates with a margin of 1.5 percentage point to the Central Bank's refinancing rate, which is currently 8.25%.