Alpha Bank suffers a 33.7% drop on the year in Pre-tax Profit from SEE Operations in Q1

BUCHAREST, May 26–Greece’s Alpha Bank posted on Tuesday a 35.7% fall in pre-tax profit from its operations in Southeast Europe (SEE)to 27.6 million EUR.
The results reported for SEE cover the bank’s operations in Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and Macedonia.
Deposits in the six countries rose by an annual10.6% to 5.917 billion EUR at end-March and loans increased by 30.6% to 11.075 billion EUR, Alpha Bank said in a statement. Total assets rose by an annual 19.5% to 67.4 billion EUR, operating income increased by 11.3% to 123.7 million EUR and operating expenses rose by 22.5% to 72.5 million EUR.
In Romania, the bank’s loans reached 4.1 billion EUR, up by 36% compared to March 2008. “Our organic growth strategy followed over the past 15 years is reflected in the good quality of our loans, as NPLs (non-performing loans) stand at 33 million EUR, or 0.8%.” Profit before tax reached 21.1 million EUR, up 57.5% compared to 2008, mainly due to the bank’s proactive provisioning.
In Bulgaria the bank’s network of 120 branches has reached recently nation-wide coverage, Alpha Bank said. “The sharp deterioration of the operating environment weighs materially on our top line. This development combined with the increase in our operating expenses, as a result of opening 39 additional branches in 2008, and the increased risk cost, led to a negative bottom-line.”
In Serbia, where it has a market share of 6.4% in terms of loans, the bank’s operations are suffering from the severe slowdown in economic activity, which led to a contraction of our operating income by 19.8% to 9 million EUR.”
In Albania, the bank’s retail banking proposition delivered 2.5 million EUR of pre-tax profits for the period, whereby loans grew by 77.4% at 474 million euro and deposits amounted to 383 million EUR (+21.4%).”
In Macedonia the bank registered an increase in loans to 145 million EUR and a decline of deposits to 68 million EUR. Alpha Bank did not provide comparative figures.
Alpha Bank recorded an annual 58.2% fall in the group’s consolidated net profit to 85.7 million EUR in the first quarter of the year.