Laiki Hellas profits up 8% at CYP 1.5 mln

Laiki Hellas recorded an improvement in operating profitability, but net profit were up only 8% to CYP 1.5 mln from CYP 1.4 mln a year ago, and well below the 126% year-on-year gain recorded by the Laiki Bank Group in the first quarter of 2006.

The contribution of net profit of Laiki Hellas to the overall Laiki Group profit remained at 7.4%, which is well below the norm of 15% seen in the past.

Operating income at Laiki Hellas increased by 15,6% to CYP 13.5 mln mainly on the back of the 17.7% increase in net interest income to CYP 10.3 mln, while other income was up 9.2% to CYP 3.2 mln.

Operating expenses of the Group in Greece had a restricted increase of 7.7% to CYP 8.3 mln demonstrating the strict and systematic control that is exercised over costs.

The Cost to Income ratio fell to 61.5% from 66.1% a year ago. The number of staff rose from 815 a year ago to 887 end of March 2006. Despite the fact that the quality of the loan portfolio remains satisfactory, it was considered necessary to charge the results of the Group in Greece with a provision for impairment of advances of CYP 3.0 mln compared to CYP 1.8 mln in the first quarter of 2005.

As a result of the above, the profit before provisions increased by 30.9% and profit after tax by 8.0% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2005.

Total advances in Greece increased 21.3% y/y to CYP 1.36 bln and were well above the CYP 1.33 bln end of 2005 while customer deposits were up 14.4% y/y to CYP 1.35 bln, but were down from the end of 2005 total of CYP 1.38 bln.