Third largest Romanian lender sees net profit increase almost fivefold

BRD-Groupe Société Générale, the third largest lender in Romania based on the value of its assets, recorded a 388% annual increase in its net profit in the first three months of this year. The bank’s net profit amounted to almost EUR 68 million during this period. The growth was related to the rise in the balance of net loans, the decrease in the non-performing loans ratio, and a significant drop in operating costs (5.1%), according to data published by BRD yesterday. By comparison, the bank saw a net profit of EUR 13.8 million in the first three months of 2016. The bank’s operating revenues increased by 0.4% to EUR 143.4 million in the first quarter, as net interest income went up by 5.1%. The balance of net loans amounted to over EUR 6.3 billion, up 3.5% year-on-year whereas the assets’ value went down by 1% year-on-year to EUR 11.3 billion. The balance of the net loans granted to large corporate customers rose by 4.9% year-on-year while the loans to individuals went up by 5.8%. The volume of deposits increased both on the retail and non-retail segment, reaching EUR 9.1 billion at the end of March, up 6.7% over the end of March 2016. The deposits in current accounts went up due to the low interest rates, according to the bank’s press release. The deposits on the retail segment saw an annual increase of 9.5% whereas the deposits on the non-retail segment recorded an annual growth of 2.3%. At group level, the bad loans rate reached 10.3% at the end of March, down from 13.7% at the end of March last year. editor@romania-insider.com