UniCredit Tiriac Bank sees half-year net profit down in Romania but doubled second quarter profit

Romanian lender UniCredit Tiriac Bank doubled its net profit in the second quarter of this year compared to the first, to some EUR 11.6 million, but its half-year net profit went down by 19 percent, to some EUR 17 million, according to the bank.

The bank's total revenues, of EUR 134.6 million for the first half of the year were slightly down – 1.7 percent lower than in the first half of 2011. “The bank's performance was supported by our business model based on balanced growth and on gradually switching to the local currency in the structure of our portfolio, as well as actively attracting deposits, while managing to retain existing deposits […],” said Rasvan Radu, CEO of UniCredit Tiriac Bank. The bank's deposits portfolio was of EUR 2.63 billion at end June 2012, almost 30 percent higher than in mid-2011. Meanwhile, loans were at some EUR 4.3 billion, including externalized loans - a growth of 18.4 percent compared to June 2011. Loan provisions were down by 5 percent during the first half of the year, while the cost of risk was 1.62 percent in the first quarter of 2012. editor@romania-insider.com