Greece's Piraeus Bank quarterly profit more than doubles

Piraeus Bank SA

31/07/2024 09:04

ATHENS, July 31 (Reuters) - Piraeus Bank, Greece's
third-largest lender by market value, said on Wednesday its
quarterly profit more than doubled, helped by higher revenues
from interests and fees. 
    Net profit came in at 330 million euros ($356.96 million) in
the second quarter to June, up from 120 million euros in the
same period a year ago.
    Greek lenders are returning to normality after three
recapitalisations that led to their nationalisation in the
previous decade, when the country was rocked by a financial
meltdown in late 2009.
    After massively cutting their bad loan ratios, reducing
state participation and turning profitable since, they secured
this year an approval by the European Central Bank to resume
dividend payments after 16 years. 
    "So far, 2024 is turning into a milestone year for Piraeus.
Following the return to full privatisation status, the Group
paid a cash dividend to its shareholders in July, amounting to
€79mn," the bank said in a statement.
    On the back of higher interest margins, Piraeus Bank, which
was fully privatised earlier this year, last month raised its
2024 net profit guidance to about 1 billion euros this year
versus its previous guidance of about 900 million euros .
    
  
($1 = 0.9245 euros)

 (Reporting by Gdansk and Angeliki Koutantou, Editing by Louise
Heavens)
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