Hellenic Bank Cyprus profits improve to EUR 11.1 mln in 1H’10

Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd (HB) reported that first half 2010 net profits attributed to shareholders increased to EUR 11.1 mln from EUR 2.06 mln a year ago but below analyst expectations.
Improved profitability is mainly attributed to lower provisions amounting to EUR20.3 mln compared to EUR 29.8 mln in provisions a year ago in 2009 with accumulated provisions standing in at 9.2% of total loans from 8.7% in the corresponding 2009 period. Group’s Net Interest Income (NII) rose by 6% yoy to EUR98mln. NIM improved to 245 bps from 239 in Q409.
The operations in Greece continued to remain a drag on profitability, with Hellenic Bank losing another EUR 9.6 mln (pretax) in the first half in Greece, which though better than the losses of EUR 34.4 mln (pretax) booked in the first half of 2009, but continued to show the difficult conditions in Greece.
The Group’s loan to deposit ratio stood at 81.3% from 76.5% in December 2009. Tier I ratio was at the same level as in December 2009 settling at 14%.