Alpha Bank pre-tax profit diminishes by 54.3% in the first half of 2009

Tirana, August 26؇reece’s Alpha Bank reported a 54.3% fall in its half-year pre-tax profit from operations in Southeast Europe (SEE) to 39.2 million euro, mainly due to a rise in impairment charges to account for an expected deterioration in credit quality.
The results for SEE in the report cover Alpha Bank’s operations in Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The bank’s combined deposit portfolio in the six countries rose by an annual 5.7% to 6.256 billion euro at the end of June while loans increased by 13.8%to 11.043 billion euro, Alpha Bank said in a statement. The bank’s half-year operating income in SEE increased by 8.8% to 250.3 million euro and operating expenses rose by 14.5% to 148.7 million euro.
In Albania, the bank’s profit before tax reached 4.1 million euro.
“Our loans expanded by 9.3% quarter-on-quarter to 518 million euro at the end of June as alongside supranational institutions, we led the financing of certain infrastructure projects. Our deposits amounted to 396 million euro, up 6.0% compared to last year,” the statement said.
Alpha Bank recorded an annual fall of 48.2% to 214.7 million euro in its group consolidated net profit in the first half of the year.