May 18 (SeeNews) - Romania's Patria Bank [BSE:PBK] said that its net profit soared by 241% year on year inthe first quarter of 2023, reaching 3 million lei ($651,360/603,570).
Net banking income increased by 6% year-on-year to 44 million lei, Patria Bank said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange earlier this week.
The net income from fees and commissions rose by 19%, to 8.3 million lei.
"Patria Bank continued the process of consolidating profitability, process which arises from the development of operational revenues correlated with a prudent evolution of the cost of risk. The improvement of profitability in a volatile and uncertain macroeconomic environment denotes a sustainable evolution as well as the adaptability of the Bank to the current market conditions," Patria Bank said.
The bank's loan portfolio in Romania edged down by 0.1% on the year to 2.18 billion lei in the first three months of 2023, while customer deposits dropped 4.3% to 3.3 billion lei. The ratio of net loans to deposits reached 72% as at the end of March 2023, compared to 68% at end-2022.
Patria Bank's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio rose to 8.23% at the end of March, from 7.36% at end-2022. The coverage of NPLs with provisions increased to 54% at end-March, from 53% at the end of 2022.
The bank's total assets dropped 2% to 4.09 billion lei at end-March, from 4.15 billion lei at the end of last year.
Patria Bank Romania is owned by Patria Bank Group, majority owned by Emerging Europe Accession Fund (EEAF), a private equity fund. Main investors in EEAF are the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Fund and other major European institutions.
Shares of Patria Bank Romania traded 3.45% lower at 0.0840 lei as of 1534 CET on Thursday on the Bucharest bourse.
(1 euro=4.96988 lei)
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