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Weekly Lists
March 29, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 26
bne:Banker EBRD’s annual profits
more than halve with Turkey’s woes cited as particular difficulty in 2018
Turkey’s new Islamic lender Emlak Katilim eyes 15 branches, foreign expansion
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) saw its annual profits more than halve last year to €340mn from €772mn in 2017, with Turkey’s economic turmoil a particular cause.
“[F]actors [behind the drop in profits] included adverse conditions across equity markets and currency depreciations in a number of the emerging economies where the EBRD is active,” the develop- ment bank said in a statement provided to Reuters. “Provisioning charges rose on the back of developments in Turkey, where the economy slowed sharply amid a significant currency decline.”
The EBRD’s non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio stood at 4.7% of total loans, compared with the record low of 3.9% seen in 2017. That rise was also largely driven by events in Turkey, it said.
Turkish state-owned Islamic lender Emlak Katilim is targeting hav- ing a network of 15 branches in Turkey by the end of the year, while it is considering setting up subsidiaries in Europe.
In January, the country’s banking industry watchdog BDDK gave authorisation to Emlak Katilim to join the market. The new Islamic lender started banking operations earlier this month.
“We are planning to raise some TRY2-3 billion from capital markets. We want to borrow TRY1bn through an Islamic bond issue – sukuk – in December,” the bank’s general manager Deniz Aksu told journal- ists in Istanbul, where Emlak Katilim’s headquarters is located.
He added that Emlak Katilim wanted to set up a subsidiary either in Paris or in Frankfurt, cities in which there are big Turkish communities.
Raiffeisen Bank shareholders will be invited to decide at an extraordinary meeting on April 23, on the launch of a bond issue worth up to a maxi- mum ceiling of €1bn (or Romanian leu equivalent), Business Review reported quoting Raiffeisen Bank Romania CEO Steven van Groningen.
The issue aims to diversify the bank’s sources of financing and to strengthen its capital.
The bonds could be listed on the local or foreign markets, Groningen said.
Notably, Raiffeisen Romania issued a RON500mn (€110mn) bond five years ago, which was listed on the Romanian stock exchange, with
a 5.35% coupon and maturing in May 2019.
Raiffeisen Bank Romania mulls issuing €1bn worth of bonds