Berlin Hyp provides EUR 1b of new lending in H1

Berlin Hyp announced on Wednesday that its volume of new lending exceeded EUR 1 bn for the first six months of 2010, 20% up on the same period last year. Including extensions of loans by one year or more, the volume comes to EUR 1.3 bn.

Jan Bettink, chairman of the German bank, said: 'Berlin Hyp remains successful with new lending even in a financial market environment which continues to be difficult. In spite of our consistently conservative lending guidelines, our positive growth is pleasing and we are improving our market position in the long term.'

The bank reported stable results for the first half-year, with operating result before risk provisions stable at EUR 68.5 mln, compared to EUR 70.6 mln in H1 last year. Due to increased risk provisioning, pre-tax profits fell to EUR 32.9 mln (EUR 39.1 mln).

Net interest and commission income remained virtually unchanged at EUR 109.1 mln

The real estate financier reduced operating expenditure from EUR 38.3 mln to EUR 37.8 mln. Whilst staff expenditure increased, partly due to increasing staff numbers, other operating expenditure was lower than in the previous year. The main reason for this was reduced expenditure for consultancy, audits and contributions.

Berlin Hyp said that it was able to reduce provisions for its lending business by 35% to EUR 21.5 mln due to 'stabilising tendencies' on the real estate market.