Banca Transilvania’s BATR.BX first-half net profit trebled, Romania’s second-largest listed bank said on Wednesday, and its shares hit five-week highs as loan loss provisions looked to have peaked in the first quarter. Net profit rose to 33.2 million lei ($10.17 million) in January-June from 11.1 million lei in the same period of 2009.Net risk costs, or loan loss provisions, stood at 330 million lei compared to 222 million lei in January-June 2009.
Reuters calculations showed provisions for bad loans were 139 million lei in the second quarter, against 191 million lei in the first.
„The results seem to confirm our view that 1Q10 was the peak for loan loss provisions,” Wood&Co brokerage in Prague said in a note. „Overall, we believe the results are a positive surprise.”
Declining risk costs quarter-on-quarter sent the bank’s shares to 1.55 lei – the highest in more than a month.
At 0933 GMT, Banca Transilvania shares traded at 1.50 lei, down 1.3 percent and in line with peers.
„The recent fall is not because of the results,” said Gernot Jany of Erste Group in Vienna.
„We see a similar picture in the region, we see OTP, Erste group and other banking stocks declining in a correction of gains (triggered by) the recent stress test results.”
Markets also cheered results showing its cost-to-income ratio improving to 46 percent from last year’s 62 percent.
The bank published results two weeks earlier than originally planned, in a move traders suspected was aimed to boost investor sentiment following the indictment of Chairman Horia Ciorcila on charges of money laundering and market manipulation this month. [ID:nLDE66B0XV] (Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Michael Shields) ($1=3.265 Lei)
