Piraeus Bank Q1 net up 46%, beats forecasts

Greece's fourth-largest lender, Piraeus Bank beat forecasts with a 46 percent rise in first quarter net profit helped by expansion in retail credit.
Its profit rose to 138.5 million euros and the comparison excluded last year's one-off gain of 153 million euros from the sale of a stake in Bank of Cyprus.
Analysts on average had expected group net earnings of 128 million euros, with estimates ranging from 126 million to 131 million.
"Piraeus group continued its dynamic course in the first quarter, despite the volatile international environment," the group's chairman Michael Sallas said in a statement.
Greek banks were big outperformers in 2007 but their shares have been under pressure this year on funding concerns and worries about the macroeconomic outlook in the Balkan emerging markets where they have expanded.
Piraeus Bank has businesses in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Cyprus, Egypt, Ukraine and the U.S.
Based on its 2007-10 business plan, it aims for earnings of over 600 million this year and twice that by 2010.
The bank said group net interest income rose 38 percent to 266.4 million euros, with its net interest margin steady at 3 percent.
Its loan book expanded by 48 percent to 33.7 billion euros with mortgages and consumer loans up 28 and 50 percent, respectively. (Reuters)