(Adds detail, analyst comment)
MOSCOW, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Russia's largest lender Sberbank on Thursday reported a record net profit of 348.3 billion roubles ($4.9 billion) for the third quarter but raised provisions as it classified assets of its subsidiary in Ukraine as restricted.
Sberbank has been reporting robust quarterly results this year thanks to a growing client base and as the Russian economy recovers from the 2020 slump caused by a sharp drop in oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sberbank, which had nearly 103 million retail clients in September, said its third-quarter net profit rose 28.3% year on year helped by a 65 billion rouble gain from the sale of Eurocement Group.
Net interest income rose 14.2% to 469.6 billion roubles in the July-September period, while return on equity (ROE) - an indicator of how much profit the company generated from money invested by its shareholders - rose to 26.8% from 22.7%.
Sberbank also increased its 2021 ROE guidance to above 23% from at least 22% earlier.
"A good set of results. We are particularly encouraged to see continued NIM (net interest margin) expansion, solid loan growth and good fee generation," Citi said in a note.
Sberbank said its provision charge, including revaluation of loans at fair value, rose to 57.2 billion as it recorded 33.3 billion roubles in provisions related to its Ukrainian assets that it acknowledged as restricted.
In the second quarter, Sberbank's provisions stood at 27.2 billion roubles.
"The reason for such classification was the regulatory restrictions that do not allow the Group to manage fully the mentioned assets," Sberbank said of its Ukrainian subsidiary.
Since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads over a war in eastern Ukraine that negatively affected businesses of Russian banks in the neighbouring country.
Sberbank shares were down 1.5% on the day at 365.6 roubles after the results, in line with the benchmark MOEX index .
$1 = 70.6540 roubles Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh and Tatiana Voronova; editing by Jason Neely and Emelia Sithole-Matarise