Romania's UniCredit Tiriac Bank 9-mo Net Profit Falls 9.0% to 252 Mln Lei (58.7 Mln Euro)

The bank's operating profit rose 15% on the year to 465 million lei through September. Return on equity was 7.0% and return on assets was 1.8%, UniCredit Tiriac said in a statement.

The results are reported under the International Financial Reporting Standards.

"We consider our performance as satisfactory in these times of crisis, providing for a good capital base and adding value to our customers and shareholders," the bank's CEO, Rasvan Radu, said in the statement.

"Our plan to focus now on stabilising the revenue generation, achieving high liquidity and good capitalisation levels. Awareness of current and potential credit risks and their active management are critical nowadays," he added.

The lender's credit portfolio remained flat on the year at 15.7 billion lei at the end of September, while deposits rose by 53% to 10.9 billion lei.

The bank's total assets totalled 19.9 billion lei at the end of September, up 18% from a year earlier. The cost-to-income ratio was 47.5% in the first nine months of this year, despite the fact that it has opened 103 branches in the past 21 months.

UniCredit Tiriac Bank employs 3,000 and operates 245 branches in the country of 21.5 million people. It was created through the merger of HVB Tiriac Bank and UniCredit Romania in 2007.

(1 euro = 4.2961 Romanian lei)