BUCHAREST (Romania), November 15 (SeeNews) – Romania's Banca Transilvania [BSE:TLV] said its net profit rose by 18.7% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2017, reaching 780 million lei ($199 million/168 million euro).
"The first nine months of the year were a period of organic growth for Banca Transilvania, which closed with positive results across the business lines, while developing a large-scale project in terms of digital banking," Banca Transilvania said in its unaudited third quarter financial statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, on Tuesday.
The bank's operating income fell 9.18% on the year to 1.91 billion lei in the first nine months of 2017.
At the end of September, the bank's assets totalled 54.85 billion lei, up 5.95% year-on-year.
Net loans increased to 29.9 billion lei in the nine months ended on September 30, up 10% on the year. During the first nine months of 2017, the bank extended 138,000 new loans to retail, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporate customers.
Deposits from customers rose 7% year-on-year to 44.98 billion lei in the nine months through September.
Non-performing loans accounted for 7.3% of Banca Transilvania’s total loan portfolio at end-September, while their cover with related provisions and mortgage collaterals remained at a comfortable level of 65% and in line with the bank’s risk appetite.
In July, the bank sold a portfolio of non-performing exposures that had been previously written-off, for 95.9 million lei.
At the group level, Banca Transilvania, which also includes BT Asset Management, BT Direct, BT Leasing, BT Securities, Factoring company, BT Finop Leasing and Medicredit, posted a net profit of 829.4 million lei in the first nine months of 2017, up 18.85% on the year. Group assets totalled 55.11 billion lei at the end of September.
Blue chip Banca Transilvania is the largest Romanian privately-owned bank. It booked a net profit of 1.23 billion lei in 2016, as compared to record high 2.41 billion lei profit in 2015 following its merger with Volksbank. In January 2015, Banca Transilvania wrapped up a merger with Volksbank Romania, which it bought from Osterreichische Volksbanken AG, Groupe BPCE, DZ Bank AG and WGZ Bank AG.
In mid-September, Banca Transilvania said it is interested in buying Greece's Eurobank Ergasias [EUROB:ATH] subsidiaries in Romania, namely Bancpost, ERB Retail Services IFN and ERB Leasing IFN. Since then, negotiations have been ongoing.
On November 10, Eurobank Ergasias said that it expects to sign the deal with Banca Transilvania at the end of November.
Also at the beginning of November, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said that Banca Transilvania intends to acquire an initial stake of over 39% in Victoriabank, Moldova’s third-largest bank. As a result of the planned investment, Banca Transilvania and the EBRD will jointly hold a controlling stake in Victoriabank.
Banca Transilvania's shares traded 1.38% lower at 2.14 lei on the BVB as at 1321 CET on Wednesday.
(1 euro=4.6306 lei)
Victoriabank SA is among the biggest banks in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here