German real estate financiers Aareal Bank and Helaba posted strong earnings figures on Tuesday despite what Aareal described as a continuing challenging business environment.

German real estate financiers Aareal Bank and Helaba posted strong earnings figures on Tuesday despite what Aareal described as a continuing challenging business environment.

Aareal Bank said that it continued to perform well during the current financial year, posting consolidated operating profit of EUR 33 mln for the third quarter.

The bank's operating result exceeded both the previous quarter (EUR 31 mln) and the same period of the previous year (EUR 21 mln). Aareal Bank Group's consolidated operating profit for the first nine months of the year thus amounts to EUR 94 mln, up by almost 47% on the EUR 64 mln booked in the year-earlier period.

At EUR 32 mln, provisions for credit losses booked between July to September were slightly below the previous quarter (Q2 2010: EUR 33 mln), and well below the previous year's figure (Q3 2009: EUR 36 mln).

Chairman Wolf Schumacher: 'Thanks to the strength and soundness of our business model, we once again performed very well in a market environment that continues to be truly challenging for the property sector. We continue to consistently exploit the market opportunities available, whilst maintaining a tight rein on our risk exposure. Our consolidated operating profit already exceeds the full-year results for 2009 - this means that we have already achieved a key objective for the current financial year after only three quarters in 2010.'

Helaba - Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen - said it overcome the adverse valuation effects experienced in the second quarter and increased group net profit for the first nine months of the business year to almost the previous year's level.

Group earnings before taxes amounted to EUR 284 mln, while net profit reached EUR 218 mln, compared with EUR 95 mln at end-June 2010. This is slightly below the previous year's net profit, but Helaba said this was expected.

Hans Dieter Brenner, chairman of the board of directors, said he was satisfied with the development: 'We have left market turbulences and the associated strains on valuation seen in the second quarter behind us and now are back on the road to success. After 2009 had been a year characterised by reversals of impairments, we expect a good operating business in the current year and a normalisation of our net trading income. Supported by a sustained positive business trend, we therefore remain optimistic that we will be able to achieve a performance in 2010 that is slightly below that seen in the previous year.'