BRD budget says the worst is over

BRD Groupe Societe Generale, the second largest bank on the Romanian market, for this year expects a “stable and slightly higher” net income from last year and a stabilisation of the level of bad loan provisions. As revealed by the balance sheet, BRD management forecasts 5-10% growth both for attracted deposits and granted loans, counting on a lending thaw-up particularly on the corporate segment. As the budget due to be submitted to shareholders’ approval in late April shows, BRD management expects the economy to have left the worst behind and start rebounding. “These seem realistic work hypotheses to me. Though provisions risk rising further, this may be offset by the bigger interest margin,” explains Florin Ilie, head of the capital markets department of ING Bank. BRD in 2009 reported net income worth 779m RON (183.7m euros), down 42% from 2008, given that net risk charges topped 1bn RON (238m euros), 2.3 times higher than in the previous year. Despite of the falling income, BRD last year had the biggest profit on the market.