The loss was mainly on increased provisions amounting to €51.8m in the first six months of the year, combined with a reduced operating profit which dropped to €51.8m in January to June from €58.8m in the same period last year, the lender said in a statement on the website of the Cyprus Stock Exchange.
The bank saw its net interest income fall in the first half of the year to €66.3m, down from €74.7m the year before. This reduced total revenue to €128.5m from €131m respectively. Total expenditure rose to €76.7m from €72.3m also respectively.
Hellenic said that its accumulated provisions for loan impairments stood at €1.4bn at the end of June.
The bank, which launched a joint venture with the Czech non-performing loans specialist APS Holdings in July, said that its stock of delinquent loans dropped to well below €2.4bn at the end of the first half of the year, from over €2.5bn in December or to 56% from 58.2% respectively. In the first six months of the year, it restructured €296m and wrote off €82m in debt as part of the loan restructuring agreements. In March, the bank’s non-performing loans ratio was 57%.
The bank’s common equity tier 1 ratio (CET1) stood at the end of 13.88 at the end of June exceeding a regulatory minimum requirement of 9.25% while its capital adequacy ratio stood at 17.55% compared to 12.75% respectively, it said. At the end of March the CET1 ratio stood at 13.71% while the capital adequacy ratio was 17.24%. Total provisioning coverage rose to 60% in June from 55% six months before.
Customer deposits stood at €5.8bn in June down from €6.1bn in March while total gross loans were €4.2bn against from €4.3bn three months before, Hellenic said.
The bank’s chief executive officer Ioannis Matsis said that Hellenic, the only major Cypriot bank which did not resort to a bailout or bail-in four years ago to remain afloat, “made further progress in materialising its strategic priorities in the second quarter of 2017”.
“We reduced non-performing loans for a seventh consecutive quarter,” he was quoted as saying, adding that after restructuring €122m in loans in the second quarter the restructuring momentum continues. “Addressing problematic loans is of foremost importance and we therefore continue to explore all available options”.
Source: Cyprus Mail
