Yapı Kredi net climbs 47 pct
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 09, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Yapı Kredi Bank, the Turkish bank co-owned by Italy’s UniCredit, said profit rose 47 percent last year after it reversed provisions and cut costs.
Net income was 1.04 billion Turkish liras ($580 million), compared with 709 million liras in 2007, reported Bloomberg citing the bank’s filing with the Istanbul Stock Exchange. That was in line with profit the Istanbul-based bank declared for tax purposes on Feb. 16.
"Yapı Kredi reversed some provisions for non-performing loans, which has helped, and it’s also been restructuring after it merged with Koçbank," said Alpay Dinçkoç, an analyst for Oyak Securities in Istanbul. "Still, Yapı Kredi has a lot of credit-card exposure and that may be risky."
Non-performing loans in Turkey’s banking system rose to 3.9 percent of total loans from 3.8 percent at the end of last year, Tevfik Bilgin, chief of the nation’s banking watchdog, said on Feb. 26. Operating costs at Yapı Kredi declined from the previous year, when they were inflated by expenses including redundancy payments following the 2006 merger with Koçbank. Consolidated profit for the year, which includes other operations, was 1.26 billion liras, a 45 percent increase on 2007, Yapı Kredi said in a separate e-mailed statement.
It’s not just Yapı Kredi that has to be cautious this year in the midst of the rising number of non-performing loans.
İşbank, Turkey's biggest publicly traded bank by assets, aims to maintain its profit level this year even as non-performing loans increase amid an economic slowdown.
The bank expects its assets to grow 10 percent in 2009, deputy chief executive Aykut Demiray told Reuters in an interview late Thursday. He said the bank's Turkish lira and foreign-currency liquidity was strong and that it did not face any foreign exchange risk. İşbank ’s fourth-quarter net profit fell 44 percent to 190.5 million liras ($107.6 million), missing analyst expectations, due to the sharply deteriorating economy. Full-year net profit was 1.5 billion liras, according to results announced last month.
Demiray said the bank had experienced a good year despite the fall in profitability, although the impact of the global economic crisis on the real economy was expected to continue.
"We aim to maintain the 2008 level of profitability this year ... the impact of economic problems on the sector will be in the form of non-performing loans, (lower) economic growth and falling demand," Demiray said. Fourth-quarter results from banks overall were mixed as growth slowed to its lowest level in six years in 2008.
"We think it would be rational behavior to target asset growth of around 10 percent in 2009, taking on a defensive position on the basis that the economy will not grow in the coming year," he said.
There was fall in credit demand and difficulties in international funding but there was no question of loans being cut off or called in early, although an increase in non-performing loans was expected, he said. "I think that the increase in non-performing loans at İşbank will be lower than in the sector. Generally our policy is more conservative," he said.
The bank faces syndication repayments of $900 million in April and $825 million in September, as well as securitization loan repayments of $500 million in 2009 as a whole, he said. Its base scenario is for a rollover ratio of 70 percent. Demiray said the bank did not plan staff increases this year and did not expect a big increase in its number of branches from the current level of 1,040.
"Yapı Kredi reversed some provisions for non-performing loans, which has helped, and it’s also been restructuring after it merged with Koçbank," said Alpay Dinçkoç, an analyst for Oyak Securities in Istanbul. "Still, Yapı Kredi has a lot of credit-card exposure and that may be risky."
Non-performing loans in Turkey’s banking system rose to 3.9 percent of total loans from 3.8 percent at the end of last year, Tevfik Bilgin, chief of the nation’s banking watchdog, said on Feb. 26. Operating costs at Yapı Kredi declined from the previous year, when they were inflated by expenses including redundancy payments following the 2006 merger with Koçbank. Consolidated profit for the year, which includes other operations, was 1.26 billion liras, a 45 percent increase on 2007, Yapı Kredi said in a separate e-mailed statement.
It’s not just Yapı Kredi that has to be cautious this year in the midst of the rising number of non-performing loans.
İşbank, Turkey's biggest publicly traded bank by assets, aims to maintain its profit level this year even as non-performing loans increase amid an economic slowdown.
The bank expects its assets to grow 10 percent in 2009, deputy chief executive Aykut Demiray told Reuters in an interview late Thursday. He said the bank's Turkish lira and foreign-currency liquidity was strong and that it did not face any foreign exchange risk. İşbank ’s fourth-quarter net profit fell 44 percent to 190.5 million liras ($107.6 million), missing analyst expectations, due to the sharply deteriorating economy. Full-year net profit was 1.5 billion liras, according to results announced last month.
Demiray said the bank had experienced a good year despite the fall in profitability, although the impact of the global economic crisis on the real economy was expected to continue.
"We aim to maintain the 2008 level of profitability this year ... the impact of economic problems on the sector will be in the form of non-performing loans, (lower) economic growth and falling demand," Demiray said. Fourth-quarter results from banks overall were mixed as growth slowed to its lowest level in six years in 2008.
"We think it would be rational behavior to target asset growth of around 10 percent in 2009, taking on a defensive position on the basis that the economy will not grow in the coming year," he said.
There was fall in credit demand and difficulties in international funding but there was no question of loans being cut off or called in early, although an increase in non-performing loans was expected, he said. "I think that the increase in non-performing loans at İşbank will be lower than in the sector. Generally our policy is more conservative," he said.
The bank faces syndication repayments of $900 million in April and $825 million in September, as well as securitization loan repayments of $500 million in 2009 as a whole, he said. Its base scenario is for a rollover ratio of 70 percent. Demiray said the bank did not plan staff increases this year and did not expect a big increase in its number of branches from the current level of 1,040.