Alpha Bank's quarterly profit jumps 37% on strong interest income (updated)

Alpha Bank SA

16/05/2024 06:41

(Adds details of results, background)
       ATHENS, May 16 (Reuters) - Greece's Alpha Bank
 ACBr.AT , the country's fourth-largest lender by market value,
reported on Thursday a 37% rise in first-quarter net profit on
higher net interest income and lower provisions for bad loans.
    Alpha Bank, of which Italian bank UniCredit  CRDI.MI 
controls 9%, reported normalised net earnings of 221.6 million
euros ($241.10 million) versus 162 million euros in the first
quarter of 2023.
    Net interest income grew 9.6% year-on-year in the first
three months of the year to 420.2 million euros, driven by
higher rates in the eurozone and increased lending.
    Net interest margin rose to 2.3% from 2.1% in the first
quarter of 2023.
    The company's loan-loss provisions reduced to 63 million
euros in the first quarter from 74 million euros in the same
period last year, with the non-performing loan exposure ratio
(NPE) falling to 6% of the total loan portfolio from 7.6%.
    It plans to reduce this ratio to under 4% by 2025.
    Greek banks have been working to reduce a pile of
non-performing credit, the legacy of a decade-long financial
crisis that shrank the economy by a quarter.   
($1 = 0.9191 euros)

 (Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Christian
Schmollinger and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
 ((lefteris.papadimas@thomsonreuters.com; +30 210 3376477;
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