OREANDA-NEWS. October 21, 2014. A Strategic Partnership Agreement was signed by Sberbank CIB and Etalon Group. The agreement is valid until 2024 and was signed by Alexander Bazarov, Senior Vice-President, Member of the Board of Sberbank of Russia, Acting Head of Sberbank CIB and Anton Evdokimov, CEO of Etalon Group CJSC.

It provides for cooperation in such areas as project lending, financing of investment deals, mortgage lending to individuals2, joint public-private partnership projects, and joint industrial and infrastructure projects.

Cooperation with Sberbank CIB on public-private partnerships will improve the situation surrounding the construction of social and utility infrastructure and help find ways to cooperate with government agencies. Etalon Group is already planning to construct RUB 2.4 bln worth of social facilities by 2018. In addition, the partnership between Etalon Group and Sberbank CIB will give foreign industrial companies operating in Russia an opportunity to develop their business. It is expected that over the next 10 years of cooperation between the two companies a number of mortgage lending projects for individuals will be carried out. The parties have already signed a number of project financing agreements totalling RUB 7.6 bln for Etalon Group’s major Moscow Region project “Izumrudnye Kholmy”.

Anton Evdokimov, CEO of Etalon Group CJSC, remarked: “We value the potential of this ten-year partnership at up to 150-200 billion roubles. When others see a crisis, we see opportunities for routine growth and development. History shows that the best performing companies are those that combine their efforts to achieve good synergies. Above all, cooperation with Sberbank CIB means reliability, stability and dynamic development.”

Alexander Bazarov, Senior Vice-President, Member of the Board of Sberbank of Russia, Acting Head of Sberbank CIB, commented: “We have been working with Etalon Group for more than 14 years. During that time the total area of projects that have been constructed with our financial participation has exceeded 200,000 square metres. In addition, during our partnership bonds of the Group’s companies have been placed and bank guarantees worth over a billion roubles have been provided. I hope the cooperation agreement that we have signed today will help us significantly enhance the execution of planned projects.”