November 3 (SeeNews) - Austria's Erste Group said on Friday the net profit of its majority owned Romanian unit, Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), halved to 102.8 million euro ($119.7 million) in the first nine months of 2017, compared to 225.9 million euro in the same period of last year.
The results worsened mainly due to the non-recurrence of last year’s selling gains of the shares in VISA Europe in the amount of 24.3 million, higher provisions for litigations, as well as higher resolution fund contribution of 14.3 million euro, Erste Group said in its nine month 2017 unaudited, consolidated financial statement.
The non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio decreased to 10.5% at end-September from 11.8% a year earlier, while NPL coverage ratio rose to 94% from 85.3%.
BCR's operating profit fell 0.7% year on year to 219.8 million euro in the first nine months of the year, while operating income edged down 2.5% on the year to 458.4 million euro. Net interest income declined by 4.7% to 272.4 million euro mainly due to lower income from lending business and lower unwinding effects, while net fee income was 4.6% lower at 113.3 million euro on the back of lower transaction and account maintenance fees in the retail business.
The bank's cost-to-income ratio dropped to 52.1% from 52.9% at end-September 2016.
Loan volume reached 7.2 billion euro in the first nine months of the year, up 2.5% on the year, while dropped by 1.2% on the year 10.36 billion euro at end-September 2017.
The bank's total assets rose to 14.55 billion euro at end-September from 14.50 billion euro a year earlier.
($=0.8588 euro)