Sberbank Ecosystem (SberX)

SberX: which services are included in the ecosystem

2021

Sberbank announced its goal to overtake Ozon and Wildberries in the e-commerce market

Sberbank has set ambitious goals related to the e-commerce business and expects to bypass the largest players in this market - Ozon and Wildberries. Its e-commerce ecosystem by 2023 should become player No. 3 in Russia, and by 2030 - player No. 1. This was told by the first deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank Lev Khasis at an online meeting with the press on April 27, 2021.

We are trying to be aggressive, but realistic, "says Lev Khasis. "We have no idea that it is possible to catch up with the leaders - Wildberries and Ozon - by 2023, although everything happens in life. But, realistically, we are fighting for third place in 2023. And if we talk about the 2030 year, then, of course, we think that some place other than the first is unworthy of Sber. By 2030, we must be a leader in the Russian e-commerce market.

Lev Khasis voiced Sberbank's ambitious goals in the e-commerce market

In accordance with the e-commerce development strategy approved at the end of 2020, Sberbank planned that its ecosystem would reach a turnover of about half a trillion rubles in 2023 from this direction. At the end of 2020, Sberbank ecosystem companies received e-commerce revenue of about 30 billion rubles, the Khasis indicator cited. This means that over the next three years, you need to scale this business about 17 times in order to achieve the goal. At the same time, the revenue of Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, which set the goal in the future to bypass Sberbank, in 2020 amounted to about 437.2 billion rubles.

The main trump card for achieving their ambitious goals in Sberbank is SberMegaMarket, the renamed multi-category marketplace goods.ru, the acquisition of which Sberbank announced on the same day. The bank, in particular, received an 85% stake in goods.ru, 10% is retained by the M.Video-Eldorado group, and 5% is the founder of M.Video, Alexander Tynkovan. Sberbank has planned investments in the development of this company in the range of 30 billion rubles. At the same time, the bank did not pay much for its shares, Khasis noted. Learn more about the deal here.

On the same day, Sberbank announced the acquisition of an 85% stake in the goods.ru

At the same time, Sberbank already has its own e-commerce platform - SberMarket, the main volume of delivery of which is food. It is not planned to merge it with SberMegaMarket in the near future, the bank said, explaining that the two sites have different models of buyer behavior. So, in the "SberMarket" a person first chooses his favorite store, from where he can order goods with quick delivery. Then he selects goods, and the SberMarket service then receives a reward from retail chains for the purchase.

SberMegaMarket offers more: here buyers can purchase goods from retail chains, from manufacturers and distributors, as well as from small sellers. This is a model very similar to Ozon.

At the same time, it is planned to ensure the maximum integration of the two sites to promote each other, and all SberMarket partners are expected to be represented in SberMegaMarket. In addition, for example, integration with the SberPrime Sberbank service and the Thank You bonus program is planned. For subscribers of SberPrime, in particular, free delivery of goods weighing up to 50 kg will be available.

Solomon Kunin, CEO of SberMegaMarket, says that until now goods.ru has had a serious presence in Moscow and the Moscow Region, as well as partly in the North-Western Federal District. Now it plans to increase its presence almost throughout the country. First, it is planned to cover the European part of Russia, and then move to other regions.

In this, the site will rely on the capacity of the delivery service "SberLogistics." According to Leo Khasis, it is developing rapidly. As of April 2020, the service has about 7.6 thousand postamats, and in 2021 the bank expects to cover the entire country with postamats. Also, within the framework of SberLogistics, the development of a network of warehouses is planned. And earlier in April, Sberbank announced the acquisition of 80% in InSales, the developer of a platform for managing online trading. It will also be integrated with SberLogistics.

SberMegaMarket expects to compete with market leaders, including through attractive conditions for sellers of goods on its site

To win the fight for the buyer, you need to win the fight for the seller, said Solomon Kunin. Therefore, they will try to create the most attractive conditions - for each segment of sellers there will be separate offers for interaction with SberMegaMarket. This, according to Kunin, should become one of the competitive advantages of the site, given that current market leaders, taking advantage of their position, sometimes offer sellers not too satisfying the latter conditions.

Now Sberbank invests about 3% of its capital in non-bank ecosystem services, and plans to increase this figure to 6-7%, which is equivalent to about 300-350 billion rubles, Lev Khasis said. A significant part of these funds, according to him, will go to the development of e-commerce services and related areas, for example, logistics infrastructure.

Against the background of news about the purchase of goods.ru and plans for its development, Sberbank shares updated their historical maximum: never before have they cost 300 rubles per share, Lev Khasis noted. This suggests that investors are very positive about the strategy that Sberbank is implementing, he added.

At the same time, Khasis notes, Sberbank does not cease to be a bank, and "does not climb into the pocket" of its depositors: all investments in the development of the ecosystem come from profit. Some other large banks have a much larger share of capital invested in non-bank services.

Sber invests 350 billion rubles in non-bank business

On April 14, 2021, Sber announced the investment of 300-350 billion rubles in the development of the non-bank business. These funds will be spent for three years, and their "significant" part will go to logistics.

We plan to invest in modern automated logistics infrastructure, since it is almost non-existent in Russia, "bank financial director Alexandra Buriko told Reuters.

In particular, Sber intends to invest in the creation of logistics hubs. According to Buriko, this will speed up delivery to all large and small cities of Russia, adding to the already built logistics networks.

Sber invests 300-350 billion rubles in the development of non-bank business

The publication calls logistics one of the main problems in Russia, given the large area of ​ ​ the country (occupies 17% of the land in the world). The volume of the market, the electronic commerce development of which is closely related to logistics, in Russia doubled in 2020, but amounted to only 10% of the total retail sales. Such a great potential for further growth pushes Sber, and Ozon AliExpress other players to invest in logistics.

The Sbera financial director noted that the bank does not plan new transactions in 2021 with e-commerce players, adding that it needs to start selling clothes and accessories on its own - without concluding partnership deals.

This is rather a question of a team that knows how to work with sellers, "she added.

The agency notes that earlier Sber tried to expand its presence in the regions and tried to join forces with other major players, including Ozon and Yandex. However, after the disruption of transactions, the bank decided to act alone.

Against the background of a reduction in bank margins, Sber is expanding its business outside the banking industry, offering food delivery services, taxi calls, information security, as well as cloud services, etc., according to a Reuters publication.^[1]

2020: UBS increased the estimate of Sber's non-financial assets by 4.5 times to 594 billion rubles

In December 2020, the investment bank UBS increased the valuation of Sber's non-financial assets by 4.5 times - from 133 to 594 billion rubles. In an optimistic scenario, this figure could reach 1.1 trillion rubles.

According to RBC, citing the UBS report, Sber's non-financial revenue by 2023 will amount to 570 billion rubles and bring about 130 billion rubles in gross profit. According to the source of the publication, this is the first assessment of non-financial services of the Sbera ecosystem, which is included in the valuation model of the entire company.

UBS Bank has increased the valuation of Sber's non-financial assets by 4.5 times

According to UBS forecasts, accounting for non-financial services (at an estimate of 594 billion rubles) adds 8% to the target price of Sberbank shares in the future of the year in the base scenario - experts determined it (given the economic factors affecting this indicator) at 343 rubles. per paper. In an optimistic scenario, it can reach 400 rubles. The value of all the bank's assets in the base scenario will exceed 7.3 trillion rubles, in the optimistic scenario it is not given.

According to Mikhail Ganelin, senior analyst for the banking sector at Aton, when Sber's previous strategy was presented three years ago, investors did not quite understand the concept of the group's development and they did not really like the fact that the bank buys various companies in the market, since this gave the impression of a "dispersion" of activities. Now the situation has changed. And at Investor Day, Sberbank managed to convey to potential partners the essence of its strategy, as a result of which many revised forecasts for the value of the company's shares. More recently, analysts set the target price of the share at 270-300 rubles apiece, and after the event the indicator on average increased by 10-20%, the expert noted.

According to the new strategy, presented at the end of November 2020, Sber intends to increase revenue from non-financial services to 5% of the total, and by 2030 - to 20-30%. Most non-financial services, according to the bank, in three years should become break-even.^[2]

2019

Sberbank first revealed how much it earns on the ecosystem, in which it invested 125 billion rubles

The total investment of Sberbank in non-bank products and services, including companies that were created organically, since the launch of the ecosystem amounted to 125 billion rubles, said at the end of February 2020, Chairman of the Board of Sberbank German Gref during a conference call dedicated to discussing the financial results of the 4th quarter of 2019. And in 2019, in particular, about 80 billion rubles were invested in the ecosystem.

From the presentation for the conference call, it follows that in 2019 the revenue of the companies included in the ecosystem amounted to about 70 billion rubles. According to German Gref, of it the share due to Sberbank is more than 35 billion rubles. Sberbank told TAdviser that they do not disclose how much the bank received from the revenue of ecosystem companies in an earlier period.

At the end of 2020, Sberbank expects to achieve a similar indicator of already 70 billion rubles with the revenue of ecosystem companies of 130 billion rubles, follows from the presentation to the call.

German Gref summed up the interim results of the development of the Sberbank ecosystem "(photo - Reuters)"

Also during the call, Gref spoke about how Sberbank is turning into a large-scale ecosystem that combines banking products and many non-bank products and services. Among the latter - SberMarket - a service for delivering products to the house and office, SberFood - a service for going to restaurants, "Sber solutions" - services outsourcing business processes and many others.

In 2019, the ecosystem of non-bank products and services of Sberbank expanded. The bank began cooperation with two large Internet companies - Mail.Ru Group and Rambler. In cooperation with Mail.ru, in particular, the bank plans to create a joint venture in the field of digital technologies for the food and transport market (for details see the block below).

The bank also acquired the recruitment portal Rabota.ru, the Voice Technology Center company and developed the internal directions of Sber Okko, SberDevices and SberLogistics. Thus, Sberbank has strengthened its position in the segments of transportation, food delivery, entertainment and media, lifestyle and others, Gref noted.

Sberbank began integrating ecosystem offerings with its services to provide seamless customer experience. This is ensured by the tools of new technological platforms of Sberbank, such as SberID, SberData, SberAI, SberSecurity and others, he explained.

According to the chairman of the board of Sberbank, at the beginning of 2020, 48 ecosystem services can be accessed through SberID - the single sign-on system of the bank and its partners using a login and password from Sberbank Online. SberID use about 6 million Sberbank customers.

According to Gref, from the point of view of ecosystem development, 2019 was difficult for the bank: at the beginning of the year, the company had many questions about how to combine all services and find the most suitable model of corporate governance and management of ecosystem companies. But now the bank has a good means for this - a new technological platform, said German Gref.

Without such a platform, it is impossible to build an ecosystem. And in the case of Sberbank, I think we have a good, advanced platform. We are the only company in the country that has one, "said German Gref.

The head of Sberbank, however, added that it would be possible to talk about Yandex here, but, in his opinion, the Yandex platform has much fewer elements than Sberbank.

Gref also said that against the background of an increase in the number of users of Sberbank's online bank, the role of physical branches, which are visited by approximately 47 million people per month, is also changing. The number of users of the online bank has already exceeded the number of those who visit branches, and this has forced the bank to rethink their role and use them, including for the development of its ecosystem.

We have turned the network of branches into a hub where customers can improve their digital skills, and into a front office to promote ecosystem products, "explained German Gref.

During the conference call, the head of Sberbank noted that he was "more or less" satisfied with the current development of the bank as an ecosystem.

Conceptually, we understand what an ecosystem is, and what is the difference between it and the holding company. And now we may not be 100% ecosystem, but, I think, by the end of the year, the existing companies of our ecosystem will be connected using the tools that I spoke about, "German Gref shared his vision.

Earlier, in a similar conference call dedicated to the results of the 3rd quarter of 2019, deputy chairman of the board, financial director Alexander Morozov said that the strategy for the development of the Sberbank ecosystem implies gradually replacing some of the current fees and commissions that the bank receives from its key business with fees and commissions from additional financial and non-financial services.

Signing of binding documents with Mail.ru Group on the creation of an O2O services platform in the field of transport and food

On November 19, 2019, Sberbank and Mail.ru Group announced that they had agreed on strategic cooperation, as well as signed binding partnership documents in the field of transport and food-related services.

The parties plan to apply their expertise for the development of the digital economy and products based on artificial intelligence in Russia. Companies appreciate the potential of synergies between complementary ecosystems, as well as the ability to create joint unique products to expand the range of services for customers, provide seamless user experience, improve predictability and personalize customer offerings.

Among the areas of potential cooperation, the parties highlight: advertising products for medium and small businesses, joint offers for customers and users of the Mail.ru Group and Sberbank, the exchange of expertise in the field of technologies and new complex solutions, and other joint strategic projects.

Sberbank and Mail.ru Group have already begun to cooperate, including by implementing joint initiatives to mutually promote products and ecosystem services through online and offline channels, as well as by joining Delivery Club and Sitimobil to the Thank You from Sberbank loyalty program and integrating Sberbank ID into them in the near future.

Sberbank and Mail.ru Group also signed binding documents on the creation of the Russian O2O services platform (O2O - reduction from English Online-to-Offline, Online Offline Commerce) in the field of transport and food, announced on July 25, 2019.

In addition to Delivery Club and Citimobil, the platform will include other complementary food services and: transport service, car-sharing YouDrive minority shares in DC Daily, Performance Group, "," SberMarket Product and Essential Goods Delivery Service a digital platform for the restaurant market (SberFood formerly FoodPlex), a platform for ERP the restaurant business r-keeper and others.

Mail.ru Group intended to contribute to the capital of the joint venture its shares in Delivery Club (100%) and Citimobil (29.67%), related investments in other companies in the field of food and transport (including YouDrive, DC Daily, Performance Food, SberMarket), as well as cash in the amount of 8.5 billion rubles. The company can additionally invest about 4.6 billion rubles in the capital of the joint venture, depending on the achievement of the goals introduced by the assets for a number of key indicators until November 2020. Before the close of the transaction, the Mail.ru Group will also ensure consolidation at the joint venture of a stake of 78.82% in Sitimobil. This does not imply additional investment in the joint venture.

For its part, Sberbank announced plans to contribute its 35% stake in FoodPlex, as well as cash in the amount of about 38.5 billion rubles to the capital of the joint venture. The contribution can be increased by 13 billion rubles if the goals for a number of key indicators of Delivery Club and Citimobil are achieved by November 2020.

As a result, the joint venture was supposed to receive about 47 billion rubles of investment at the time of the transaction. If KPI was reached, Sberbank and Mail.ru Group intended to make additional investments of up to 17.6 billion rubles. Thus, the estimate of the cost of the joint venture when meeting the targets will exceed 100 billion rubles.

The transaction was closed after receiving antimonopoly approval and fulfilling deferential conditions until the end of 2019. It was assumed that the parties would receive equal shares in the joint venture; at the same time, up to 10% of the shares will be allocated as part of the long-term motivation program of the employees of the O2O platform. In particular, Sberbank and Mail.ru Group planned to invest up to 64.6 billion rubles in the joint venture if the targets of the O2O platform business plan are achieved by November 2020.

Investing $1 billion in the non-bank ecosystem

At the end of July 2019, Sberbank announced the investment of $1 billion in the development of its non-bank ecosystem over the previous three years, or approximately 3% of net profit.

We are very careful to spend the money of our shareholders on such initiatives. In total, I believe, we are talking about the amount of plus or minus $1 billion, excluding our future transactions with Mail.Ru, - quotes RBC First Deputy Board of Sberbank Lev Khasis.

He admitted that many other companies are more active and aggressive in building their future ecosystems compared to Sberbank.

Sberbank invested 3% of net profit for three years in non-bank services

According to him, Sberbank does not plan the next major transactions aimed at the development of non-financial services. The top manager allows only the purchase of small niche companies. Lev Khasis says that Sberbank "disciplined" approaches the issue of the development of the non-bank ecosystem.^[3]

In May 2019, the head of Sberbank German Gref said that the bank had already invested about 60 billion rubles in the development of its ecosystem. However, he did not specify the period during which these funds were spent.

Sberbank's non-bank services are often built on the basis of joint ventures (JVs) with large industry players, such as Mail.Ru Group. Since the last Sberbank at the end of July 2019 on the creation of a joint venture in the field of food and transport. The credit institution also develops a joint business with Yandex and became the owner of a 46.5% stake in the Rambler Group Internet holding.

At the end of July 2019, the Sberbank ecosystem includes 20 companies, including the Yandex.Market aggregator, the DocDoc medical service and the Dialog corporate messenger.

All our joint ventures are fully funded by the money that we invested in them or are going to invest in them, "Lev Khasis emphasized.

2018

Creation of a SberX department for the development of an ecosystem of non-financial services

In December 2018, Sberbank said that a SberX directorate had been created that would coordinate the development of the ecosystem around other business areas of the bank.

We are building an ecosystem, the core of which is Sberbank. The main task of the SberX will be to coordinate the comprehensive development of the Sberbank ecosystem together with other business blocks of the bank, companies that are part of the Sberbank group, as well as other partner companies of the bank, - quoted RBC Lev Khasis, first deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank.

Development of e-medicine services

Sberbank has designated electronic medicine for itself as an important area for investment. In September 2018, Sberbank included it in the list of priority technologies as part of its new acceleration program for startups. And by the end of the year he expects to announce additional steps in the field of digital medicine, the first deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank Lev Khasis told TAdviser. More details here.

2017: Telemedicine service launch plans

Sberbank intends to install booths in its branches in which customers can receive online medical consultations, the Kommersant newspaper reported in November 2017. The operator of the project should be an online recording service for DocDoc doctors, in which the bank has 80% of the shares.

2016

Government experiment: what public services for business Sberbank is preparing

Sberbank is developing a whole range of services for business in the context of cooperation with the state, TAdviser was told in the bank in December 2016. According to representatives of the bank, as part of a "government experiment," Sberbank is working on technology for remote registration of enterprises, remote opening of a bank account and connection of a client bank.

This will allow already in 2017 to register companies, open an account and connect a client bank without joining the tax and bank, using a cloud electronic digital signature and bank identification. This technology will save business at least a million hours a year, said TAdviser at Sberbank.

Sberbank is working on a number of public services for business

The second direction is associated with the exclusion of the request for documents from the client, which are available electronically from government agencies, in terms of the credit process of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs.

These innovations will help reduce the number of documents requested from the client and, as a result, will reduce the time for receiving credit funds and reduce the level of interest rates on loans, as well as reduce the transaction costs of clients to visit departments, "the bank" s representatives explain.

As an example, Sberbank cited TAdviser receiving tax data from the Federal Tax Service and the Federal State Statistics Service, extracts from the state register of real estate rights and transactions with it from Rosreestr, etc.

Since January 2017, a new lending program of the Ministry of Agriculture will work. Instead of a complex subsidy procedure, agricultural producers will be able to receive preferential loans from participating banks at once at 5% per annum, Sberbank added.

Earlier, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, who supports this idea, spoke about the possibility of providing public services for business on the basis of Sberbank. About this in the block below.

Sberbank may become a provider of electronic public services

The government considers Sberbank as a possible platform for providing public services. This follows from the speech of the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) on December 19, 2016^[4].

We are trying to experiment with Sberbank, we will create new platforms so that they are convenient for small and medium-sized enterprises, but also for large enterprises. We are moving to understand that maybe through the site of Sberbank to start and perform certain public services, "Shuvalov said during the speech.

The Deputy Prime Minister noted that in power not everyone is yet ready for the idea of ​ ​ withdrawing part of the public services beyond the perimeter of state bodies.

For us, these are not quite familiar formats, especially for those associated with control and supervisory activities in the government. And for them, when these functions will go into electronic form through electronic platforms, this format is quite new, "he said.

Igor Shuvalov supports Sberbank's cooperation with the state on the provision of electronic services

Shuvalov recalled that now the team of Sberbank President German Gref is working on transforming the bank into an ecosystem. The Sberbank Supervisory Board approved the plan to create a financial ecosystem in November. It also provides for the implementation of the open code concept and the integration of various partners into the Sberbank platform. As Gref said, the creation of the platform should be completed by the end of 2018, and the final decision on the creation of the ecosystem will be made during the approval of the bank's strategy for 2019-2023 years.

Most of what will be created within the ecosystem will be directly related to entrepreneurs, Shuvalov said during a speech at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs^[5].

Earlier, in early December, Sberbank President German Gref noted that the bank is working on creating a digital business, and Gref is increasingly working with the state^[6]. Sberbank can create "connections between the state and the bank's services" at both the federal and regional levels, Gref explained. Then he spoke about Shuvalov's support for this initiative.

In November, Sberbank introduced one of the first services created jointly with the state (with Rosreestr) - electronic registration of real estate purchased in mortgages. Creating such services could reduce tens and tens of thousands of officials, Gref said.

• From the bank - to the technological ecosystem: we analyze Sberbank's digital transformation strategy

Notes