BUCHAREST (Romania), April 25 (SeeNews) – Romania's Banca Transilvania [BSE:TLV] said on Thursday its net profit rose by 19% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, reaching 436 million lei ($103 million/ 92 million euro).
The increase mirrored the efficient business streamlining, the bank said said in its unaudited first-quarter financial report.
Considering that banks may recognize final tax expenses for their financial assets only as at December 31, 2019 under the government decree which entered into force in the fiscal year 2019, Banca Translivania said that taking into account the tax on assets it will have to pay for the first quarter, its net profit as at end-March is 407.51 million lei. For the entire year, the bank estimates that it will have to pay 136 million lei tax on its assets.
Romania's government lowered in March the so-called 'greed-tax' on banks' assets, which it had enforced through a controversial emergency decree in December.
"We have focused on a fast and efficient integration of Bancpost with Banca Transilvania, precisely because we want to keep the focus on business and the support of the Romanian economy and entrepreneurs. Our plan worked just fine, and we had a first quarter of 2019 with a solid growth of the lending activity and of the number of transactions we carried out for our clients," Banca Transilvania CEO Omer Tetik said in a statement accompanying the financial report.
The bank's operating income rose to 836 million lei in the first three months of the year, up 15% as compared to the same period of 2018.
At the end of March, the bank's assets totalled 76 billion lei, up 2.35% year-on-year.
Net loans increased to 37 billion lei, up 1.89% on the year. During the first three months of 2019, Banca Transilvania granted 42,000 new loans to retail, SME and corporate clients.
Deposits from customers edged up 0.27% year-on-year to 62.7 billion lei in the first quarter.
Non-performing loans made up 4.9% of Banca Transilvania’s total loan portfolio at end-March, while their coverage with related provisions and mortgage collaterals remained at a comfortable level of 94% and in line with the bank’s risk appetite.
Blue-chip Banca Transilvania is the largest Romanian privately-owned bank. Its net profit rose by 3% year-on-year in 2018, reaching 1.2 billion lei.
In October, Banca Transilvania merged with Bancpost, which it had acquired from Greece's Eurobank Group in April 2018.
Banca Transilvania's shares traded 0.70% higher at 2.1650 lei on the Bucharest Stock Exchange as at 1059 CET on Thursday.
(1 euro=4.7560 lei)
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