Germany's Helaba Landesbank saw pre-tax earnings fall 13% in the first half of 2012 to EUR 288 mln from EUR 333 mln in the year-earlier period. Despite higher provisions for losses on loans and advances, net interest income including these provisions slipped only marginally compared to last year's figure to EUR 385 mln. A year ago, the result came to EUR 389 mln.
Germany's Helaba Landesbank saw pre-tax earnings fall 13% in the first half of 2012 to EUR 288 mln from EUR 333 mln in the year-earlier period. Despite higher provisions for losses on loans and advances, net interest income including these provisions slipped only marginally compared to last year's figure to EUR 385 mln. A year ago, the result came to EUR 389 mln.
Provisions for losses on loans and advances widened to EUR 162 mln in the first half, EUR 63 mln more than the previous year, due partly to the ongoing turbulence on the financial markets and the bank's conservative valuation methods. Excluding provisions, net interest income came to EUR 547 mln over the period, a rise of 12% compared to the EUR 488 mln booked a year ago.
The volume of medium and long-term new business rose 10% to EUR 6.9 bn on a group-wide basis year-on-year with the focus on the core segments of real estate finance (EUR 3.3 bn) and corporate finance (EUR 1.8 bn). Helaba expects new business to reach between EUR 13-14 bn over the full year.
Commenting on the results, CEO Hans-Dieter Brenner said he was 'optimistic' about the bank's performance so far this year and the full-year result would match last year's figure. 'Although we are behind our best-ever half-year result of 2011, on a pro rata basis compared to last year we have already reached almost 60% of the entire 2011 result.'
