Analyst: Hansabank posts solid 1H results

  • 2004-08-26
  • Baltic News Service
TALLINN - Suprema's Triin Palge said that Hansabank's second-quarter results were higher than analysts' expectations both in terms of revenues as well as profit. "The strong figures were based on the continuing good growth in volumes, particularly the strong growth in loans and a stabilizing interest margin due to the falling price of foreign investment," Palge said.

Suprema expected the interest margin to be at the level of 3.23 percent, but the actual interest margin in the second quarter was 3.36 percent, with a minimal fall compared with the previous quarter.
"Although no detailed figures have been released yet, we can see that growth in the interest income from loan activity is beginning to recover," Palge said.
While Hansabank's total revenue increased 11.4 percent year-on-year though operating expenses increased by only 6.4 percent, as a result the group's cost-benefit ratio continued to improve.
The group's cost-benefit ratio before provisions was 44.2 percent, compared with 46.5 percent in the second quarter of last year.
"In sum we can say that the results were very good," Palge said. "The bank's second-quarter net profit was 12 percent higher than Suprema's expectations, although our net-profit forecast was at the top edge of the consensus."
Palge pointed out that Hansabank had become the market leader in the most important spheres of retail banking - such as housing loans, private persons' deposits and pension assets management - and had done so in all three Baltic countries.