Alpha Bank group in the first six months reported EUR5.4 million in gross income from Romanian operations, down by 77% from last year. The bank managed to go back into positive territory in the second quarter, after reporting gross losses of EUR5.7 million in the January-March period.
The domestic bank controlled by Greek-owned Alpha, ranking eighth in the system, in late June had client deposits worth EUR1.3 billion, while the amount of granted loans stood at EUR3.5 billion.
The crisis has strongly eroded Alpha Bank’s balance sheet: loan volume narrowed by 15% over the past year alone. Alpha reported a bad loan weight of 8.4% after the first six months, up from 5.7% in mid-2010.
In the middle of the year, Alpha operated a network of 165 branches in Romania and had around 2,400 employees. The number of employees was relatively constant over the past year, but the territorial network shrank by 22 branches.
The Romanian subsidiaries of EFG Eurobank, the majority shareholder in Bancpost, posted net losses of EUR4.6 million in the first half, compared with a profit of almost EUR11 million in the same period of 2010. The situation deteriorated in the second quarter, after losses reached EUR1.1 million in the first three months.
The second quarter’s widening losses came as provisions set up to cover bad loan losses rose from EUR39 million to EUR42 million, but operating revenue did not rebound.
The Greek group held assets of EUR4.8 billion in Romania in late June, 16% less than in the same month of 2010. Loans granted in Romania were flat at EUR3.4 billion, while the volume of client deposits went up by almost 4%, to around EUR1.9 billion.
Bancpost operated a territorial network of 300 branches and agencies in mid-2011, flat from June 2010.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu; Editing by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)