National Commercial Bank profit 4.1 million euro in first half

TIRANA, Sept. 4 – The National Commercial Bank (BKT) of Albania had a first-half net profit of $5.29 million (4.1 million euro), or 27.6 percent more than the same period last year, the bank said on Monday. BKT’s first half pretax profit rose to $6.5 million from $5.3 million a year earlier, the second-largest bank in Albania by assets said in an audited financial report posted on its web site. Net income through June rose to $13.9 million from $11 million reported for the first half of last year. BKT assets reached $697.5 million at the end of June, up by 18.2% from end-December. The bank’s loan portfolio totaled $168.5 million at the end of June, up 82.8 percent year-on-year. BKT ended last year with a net profit of $8.4 million on a total income of $23 million. The bank expects its net profit to rise by 20 percent this year.
BKT was established in July 1997 with capital of 2.7 million leks ($26,000/22,000 euro) held by the state-run Albanian Commercial Bank (BTSH) and the Commercial Bank of Albania (BKSH). Now it has a share capital of $33 million, after raising it by $8.4 million in June. The bank had a network of 20 branches countrywide and 410 employees at the end of June. The bank started banking operations in 1998 and two years later its owners sold 60 percent to Turkey’s Kent Bank and 20 percent each to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank’s private investment arm, the International Finance Corporation. Kent Bank’s stake in BKT, which passed to the Turkish state-owned Savings Deposit Insurance Fund in 2001, was sold to Turkish consortium Calik-Seker a couple of months ago.
Albania’s banking system comprises 17 banks, after a newcomer on the market, Union Bank, started operations earlier this year.