According to Millennium’s first-half report, the bank will first evaluate from a strategic point of view various options of capitalizing on its holdings before making a final decision.
For the Romanian bank, which midway through this year had a market share of around 0.6%, the new business principle mentioned in the report tends to indicate a conservation stage -stabilizing the operations and reducing their impact on the parent bank.
One thing is certain, that Millennium has decided to stop “experimenting” on European markets and focus on Portugal, Africa, Asia and Brazil.
The basic variant for the three banks held by the Portuguese group in Poland, Greece and Romania tends to be a sale, considering that Millennium says in the report that the decisions to be made following the evaluation of the three assets are set to lead to significant rises in capital ratios.
Although currently facing the prospect of being put up for sale, Millennium Bank Romania continued in the first half to expand its client base, especially in terms of attracting resources, it focused on SMEs operating in certain sectors and has launched an offer for clients earning above-average income. It has also got involved in competition over loan refinancing and stayed on in the “First home” mortgage lending program in which the state now takes on half the risk.
Here are the bank’s results in the first half: the loan portfolio climbed 14.5% compared to the first half of 2010, to EUR357 million, deposits climbed 12.7%, to EUR250 million, while interest rate earnings increased by as much as 32%, to EUR10.2 million.
However, amid a risk cost of EUR5.9 million and operating costs of EUR20.7 million, the bank ultimately posted a loss of over EUR10 million in IFRS (international financial reporting standards), 23% lower than in the first half of 2010.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)