February 20 (SeeNews) - Croatia's second largest lender, Privredna Banka Zagreb [ZSE:PBZ-R-A], said on Monday its consolidated net profit jumped to 1.6 billion kuna ($228.2 million/214.9 million euro) in 2016, from 370 million kuna a year earlier.
PBZ's net interest income rose to 2.6 billion kuna last year, compared to 2.5 billion kuna in 2015, while net operating income grew 13.7% to 4.5 billion kuna, the bank said in a filing to the Zagreb bourse.
"In 2016, the PBZ Group further reinforced its position as one of Croatia’s foremost banks in terms of productivity, returns and value creation for its shareholders", the president of the bank's supervisory board, Giovanni Gilli, said in the filing. "Looking ahead, the present economic climate suggests that the respective environment in 2017 will nevertheless remain challenging".
Loans and advances to customers totalled 52.9 billion kuna in 2016, up from 51 billion kuna a year earlier.
PBZ, part of Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo, increased its total assets to 82.1 billion kuna last year, from 78.4 billion kuna in 2015.
PBZ Group members include PBZ Card, PBZ Leasing, PBZ Stambena Stedionica, PBZ Croatia osiguranje, and Intesa Sanpaolo Banka based in Bosnia and acquired in 2015.
(1 euro=7.44488 kuna)