Santander Bank Polska's first-quarter net profit rises 10.8% on year (updated)

Erste Bank Polska SA

30/04/2025 06:46

Adds more details throughout

GDANSK, April 30 (Reuters) - The Polish unit of Spanish lender Santander SAN.MC posted a 10.8% jump in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, driven by higher net interest income and lower costs related to Swiss franc loans.

Santander Bank Polska SPL1.WA, the country's second-biggest lender by market capitalisation, said quarterly net profit amounted to 1.73 billion zlotys ($461.1 million), above the 1.62 billion zlotys expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

The bank's net interest income for the first three months of the year rose 6.2% to 3.60 billion zlotys, but below the 3.62 billion zlotys expected by analysts. The yearly rise in the result was due to higher volumes and an increased demand for loans, especially consumer and corporate loans, the lender said.

The cost of legal provisions for foreign currency mortgage loans was 120.5 million zlotys in the first quarter compared with 1.44 billion zlotys in the fourth quarter.

        Net interest margin for the first quarter came in at 5.14% compared with 5.27% in the fourth quarter.

The decrease in net interest margin is the result of the growth in the group's key business volumes and reflects the expected direction of development of market interest rates and the adjustment measures taken by it, including asset and liability price management, the bank said.

Sales of mortgage loans in the first quarter amounted to over 2.4 billion zlotys. The generated sales results allowed for the growth of the housing loan portfolio, which at the end of March amounted to over 67.9 billion zlotys, up 4.3% compared with March 2024.

Bloomberg News reported in early April that Santander was exploring options for its roughly $8 billion majority stake in its Polish unit.

The lender owns a 62.2% stake in Santander Bank Polska after selling a 5.2% stake for 575 million euros in September.

On Monday, Austria's Erste Group Bank ERST.VI said that it was in discussions about buying a 49% stake in Santander Bank Polska.

Poland's main interest rate has been at 5.75% since October 2023, but with the outlook for inflation lower than previously thought a growing number of policymakers have been signalling that the cost of credit may soon fall.

In early April, Poland's central bank governor said that the central bank could ease policy as soon as May with the cost of credit falling as low as 3.5% in 2026.

($1 = 3.7538 zlotys)

 (Reporting by Anna Banacka; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

 ((anna.banacka@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 65 65;))