August 11 (SeeNews) - Italy's UniCredit Group said it booked a consolidated adjusted net profit in Bulgaria of 192.7 million euro ($211.9 million) in the first six months of 2023, compared to a net profit of 93.8 million euro a year earlier.
UniCredit's first-half pre-tax profit in Bulgaria also more than doubled on the year, to 220.1 million euro, the banking group said in an interim financial statement last week.
Net operating profit rose to 237.3 million euro in January-June from 115.3 million euro a year earlier, as a result of the lender releasing 16.7 million euro worth of loan loss provisions. By contrast, in the first six months of 2022, it booked loan loss provisions of 28.6 million euro.
Net interest income of UniCredit in Bulgaria rose to 210.4 million euro in the review period from 137.4 million euro a year ago. Net fees increased to 92.45 million euro from 86.3 million euro, while net trading income soared to almost 15 million euro from roughly 2 million euro last year.
Total revenue from UniCredit's Bulgarian operations came in at 312.1 million euro in the six months through June, against 227.6 million euro in the same period of 2022.
The group widened its operating costs in Bulgaria to 91.5 million euro from 83.7 million euro, with payroll expenses rising by an annual 6.8% to 48.5 million euro.
Customer loans increased by over 17% on the year to some 8.5 billion euro, while customer deposits added 14% to 12.1 billion euro.
UniCredit Bulbank was Bulgaria's third largest lender by assets as at the end of June, according to the most recent central bank data.
UniCredit's Eastern Europe segment also contributed to the Italian group's strong first-half performance, with adjusted net profit almost doubling to 636.4 million euro from 315.8 million euro a year ago. Net operating profit for Eastern Europe went up to 832.2 million euro from 452.9 million euro a year earlier.
UniCredit's Eastern Europe segment covers banking and financial activities in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Serbia.
($ = 0.9092 euro)
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