BCR posts 127m euros in H1 net income

BCR made H1 net profit of 450 million RON, down 5% in real terms from the corresponding period of last year, when it had posted 443 million RON net income. Converted in euros, the profit of Romania’s largest bank, however, went up from 121 million euros to approximately 127 million euros, sources from this bank say. The profit posted by the bank in the first half accounts for more than 28% of that posted by Erste Bank, BCR’s soon-to-be majority shareholder, for the same period of time. The income of the bank represents nearly 38% of the profit reported by the entire banking system in the first six months of 2006, that is over 1.2 billion RON. BCR ended 2005 with a profit of 742.3 million RON (over 202 million euros) and assets worth 32.9 billion RON (over 9 billion euros). Three months into the year, the bank announced assets worth over ten billion euros. Banca Comerciala Romana’s assets increased in the first half of this year by 15.7% in euros, reaching 10.3 billion euros, which accounts for a 25.6% market share, 0.1% less than in December 2005 and 0.2 less than at the end of the first quarter of 2006. BRD, the second-largest bank on the market will reveal its half-year financials on August 14. Banca Transilvania, number five on the market in terms of assets at the end of June, made net profit worth 16.58 million euros, up 16% compared with the same time in 2005. Alpha Bank, the seventh bank on the market made 15.1 million-euro profit in the first six months, 22% more than in the first half of 2005, showing banks can remain profitable despite harsher market conditions.