Page 29 - bne_newspaper_February_09_2018

Weekly Lists
February 9, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 29
bne:Banker UniCredit’s 2017 net
profit up 15% in CEE to €1.59bn
RBI reports €206mn net profit in Q4
UniCredit, the largest bank operating across Central and Eastern Europe by assets, reported a strong performance from its CEE operations in 2017, with net profit up 15.4% to a record €1.59bn.
This represented 43% of the whole group’s adjusted net profit of €3.71bn, even though the CEE division’s assets of €76bn make up only 9% of the whole group’s assets.
Return on assets in CEE was a creditable 14%, soaring 2.1 percentage points y/y. Net interest income edged up 1.3% y/y, and fee and commission income increased 3.3%, with falling risk costs delivering most of the bottom line improvement.
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), the second largest bank operating across Central and Eastern Europe by assets, made
a larger than expected preliminary net profit of €206mn in the fourth quarter of 2017, the Austrian lender reported on February 7. A Reuters poll of analysts had predicted €166mn.
Full-year net profit of €1.12bn was more than double 2016’s pro- forma €520mn, which was recalculated to take into account RBI’s merger with its parent RZB.
RBI predicted continued growth this year and will announce its first dividend since its payout from 2013 profits when it launches its full- year audited report and outlook on March 14.
“As the economy will give us momentum again this year, we are optimistic about the 2018 fiscal year,” chief executive Johann Strobl said in a statement.
The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) has declined to approve Bulgarian investment fund River Stixx Capital’s acquisition
of 85% of Serbia’s first mobile and online bank Telenor banka.
Telenor Srbija, owner of the Telenor banka, announced in August
it had reached an agreement with River Styxx Capital on a strategic partnership. Under the agreement, River Styxx Capital was supposed to acquire 85% of shares in Telenor Banka, while Telenor would maintain 15% ownership. For the fund, controlled by Albanian-born businessman Elvin Guri, acquisition of the bank was seen as an opportunity to enter Serbian market.
Serbian central bank blocks Bulgarian fund’s takeover of Telenor banka