UniCredit grows Q1 net profit, revenue in Bulgaria

UniCredit's pre-tax profit in Bulgaria went up to 112 million euro in January-March from 99 million euro a year earlier, the banking group said in an interim financial statement on Tuesday. Net operating profit rose to 130 million euro in the review period from 121 million euro in the first three months of 2023 as a result of increased net interest income.

The bank's net interest income in Bulgaria leapt by 27.5% year-on-year to 126 million euro in the first quarter. In parallel, income from fees rose to 50 million euro from 45 million euro, while trading income slipped to 7 million euro from 8 million euro.

Total revenue from UniCredit's Bulgarian operations came in at 187 million euro in the three months through March, up 22% in annual terms. At the same time, the group's operating costs in Bulgaria slightly widened to 47 million euro from 46 million euro as payroll expenses rose 4.1% on the year to 25 million euro.

Customer loans added 17% year-on-year to some 9.5 billion euro at the end of March, while customer deposits increased by 3.7% to 12.5 billion euro.

UniCredit Bulbank was Bulgaria's third-largest lender by assets at the end of March, according to Bulgaria's central bank data. The bank's total risk-weighted assets stood at 7.5 billion euro at end-March, compared to 6.3 billion euro a year earlier.

The Italian banking group's net profit in its Eastern Europe division, which includes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Serbia, surged to 392 million euro in the first quarter of 2024 from 308 million euro a year earlier, while revenue went up to 701 million euro from 592 million euro.

($ = 0.9289 euro)