LSR Group and North-West Bank of Sberbank sign agreement on strategic partnership

Alexander Govorunov, Chairman of North-West Bank of Sberbank and Alexandr Vakhmistrov, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of LSR Group, signed an agreement on strategic partnership in St. Petersburg.

The agreement is aimed at expansion of long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation between LSR Group and Sberbank, including credit facilities for LSR Group’s major projects as well as developing new mortgage programmes for residential housing under construction.

At the signing ceremony Alexander Govorunov, Chairman of North-West Bank of Sberbank, commented: “Even though it is a frame agreement, it contains several affirmed items. I’m sure this will be beneficial both for the construction industry of the region and its people as more mortgage programmes for housing by LSR Group will be offered”.

Sberbank also intends to consider participation in financing construction of LSR Group’s new brick factory.

“We established efficient cooperation with one of the Russia’s largest state banks – Sberbank - many years ago, so, this agreement on partnership is just another step in our interaction. This cooperation not only defines our company as a reliable partner but also shows a great interest of large financial institutions in business development and implementation of significant investment projects in Russia”, said Alexander Vakhmistrov, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of LSR Group.

Sberbank is currently providing comprehensive services for the subsidiaries of LSR Group: settlement and cash services, cash acceptance options, payroll card programmes, collection service and cash conversion service. Today LSR Group’s subsidiaries have existing credit facilities in Sberbank worth around RUB 6 billion.

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Contacts:
North-West Bank of Sberbank
2, Krasnogo Tekstilshika
St. Petersburg 191124
Elena Belyakova, Head of Press Service
Tel: + 7 812 335 83 41, 610 23 88
E-mail: pressa@sberbank.spb.ru
www.sberbank.ru

LSR Group Press Service
Tel.: +7 812 314 10 44
Fax: +7 812 458 83 72
E-mail: press@lsrgroup.ru
www.lsrgroup.ru

Note to Editors:
OJSC Sberbank of Russia is the largest bank of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, the key lender to the national economy, accounting for about 30% of the aggregate Russian banking assets. Sberbank’s controlling shareholder is CBR (Central Bank of Russia) which owns 60% of its voting shares. The remaining shares are held by more than 250,000 institutional and private investors.
Sberbank has the largest countrywide branch network with 17 regional head offices and more than 20,000 retail outlets. The bank also operates subsidiary banks in Kazakhstan,Ukraine and Belarus. The Bank has also its office in Germany and a branch in India.
The bank has Central Bank’s license for banking operations № 1481.

North-West Bank of Sberbank of Russia operates in 7 subjects of the Russian Federation: St. Petersburg, Leningrad region, Kaliningrad region, Murmansk region, Pskov region, Novgorod region and the Republic of Karelia. North-West Bank of Sberbank has currently the largest branch of more than 1,000 offices in the region.

OJSC LSR Group is a real estate development and building materials company founded in 1993 and operating in a number of complementary market segments. Its core business areas are production of building materials, real estate development and panel construction.
LSR Group's main operations are located in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Ukraine.
In 2009, the sales revenues of LSR Group were RUB 51,024 million (IFRS).
LSR Group is a public company, with its GDRs traded on the London Stock Exchange and its ordinary shares traded on MICEX and RTS.