UniCredit posts almost 60m-euro nine-month profit

UniCredit Tiriac, the sixth largest domestic bank in terms of assets in mid-2009, in the first three quarters made net income worth 252m RON (59.7m euros).

The profit shrank by 9% in RON from the year ago level, under the pressure of bad loan provision expenses. The figure is calculated in line with international financial reporting standards.

Rasvan Radu, the chief executive of UniCredit Tiriac, says the business is practically being preserved, with the focus now being on the management of the existing portfolio.

“We have few new transactions, with the focus being on the restructuring of existing loans. We’re still awaiting national investment projects in which we may participate”.

In the third quarter, the bank’s income fell by 29% from the same period of 2008, to 71m RON (around 17m euros).

The bank’s loan portfolio remained flat at 15.7bn RON since last September. The reported volume also includes loans worth one billion euros registered in the parent company’s balance, in Vienna.

UniCredit Tiriac doubled its provision expenses to cover credit losses in the first nine months of this year from a year ago, with pressures emerging particularly in the portfolio of financing aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises.

“The corporate segment has endured quite well so far, but it’s also starting to suffer. The fourth quarter and the first quarter of next year will sieve things on the market and show the survivors,” says Rasvan Radu.

Compared with the start of the year, the volume of provisions climbed by 47%, but the bank does not specify the total sum.

Rasvan Radu states the bank does not need additional capital under the current circumstances.

UniCredit has an 11.1% solvency rate, calculated in line with Romanian standards, compared with a minimum level of 10% required by the NBR. At the same time, the bank improved its loan/deposit ratio from 163% to 111%, in the context where the loan volume remained relatively constant, at around 3.73 billion euros.

In line with Romanian accounting standards, the bank reported net profits worth 225m RON (53m euros), up 4%, with the difference to the 252m RON income calculated in line with IFRS coming from the different treatment of provisions.

The bank in the first nine months boosted its operating income by 15%, to 465m RON (110m euros, in line with IFRS). In the third quarter, revenues were 10% bigger than in the second quarter.

The bank’s total assets climbed by 18% in the year ended in September, to 19.9bn RON (4.7bn euros).