Raiffeisen Bank, the third player in the system in terms of assets, posted net profit worth 74 million euros in the first half of this year, up 57% against the same period in 2007.
Gross profit stood at 89.3 million euros, up 67% against the first six months of 2007. The results were calculated in line with international financial reporting standards and only concerning the bank, not consolidated with the results of the other divisions from the group. "We are very pleased with the first half results because even though market shares have been discussed quite a lot, it becomes increasingly clear that a strategy to constantly and significantly improve profitability is much healthier," Steven van Groningen, chairman and CEO of Raiffeisen Bank told ZF.
He notes that the increase in profit occurred amid significant network expansion, which is set to reach 600 branches by 2010.
"We do not have specific targets because the market changes. We need to look at the other players and we can no longer use annual plans, but must analyse the situation every few months," van Groningen adds. The bank has overshot the 500-branch mark so far, compared with 337 units it had in June last year.
Since last June, Raiffeisen's assets have increased by 16% and reached 4.57bn euros, whilst against last December assets increased by 5%. In addition, Raiffeisen reported 5.8 billion-euro exposure to the Romanian market in Vienna, up by 3.6% since the beginning of the year.
Having advanced more slowly than the market, Raiffeisen is seeing a narrowing gap that separates its from its competitors. After registering a steady rate over the last few years, the Austrians at Volksbank reached almost 4.5 billion euros in assets at the end of June. Banca Transilvania, the only player with private Romanian capital among the top ten banks, saw its assets go up by 1
