Best semi-annual result since 2008 - Raiffeisen Serbia turns RSD 3.35 billion profit in H1 2012

Once the largest domestic bank, Belgrade-based Raiffeisen Banka, which is 100 percent controlled by Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International AG, reported a higher end result and a drop in revenue from interests in the first six months of this year.

In the period January-June Raiffeisen Serbia generated a RSD 6.6 billion revenue from interests, down 1.5 percent nominally from the same period last year. The profit in this segment of operations dropped 7.5 percent to RSD 4.8 billion. On the other hand, the revenue from fees and commissions jumped 10.7 percent to RSD 1.8 billion, and the profit in this business segment also grew at a two-digit rate to reach RSD 1.5 billion.

Like most other banks, Raiffeisen Banka incurred large expenditures on exchange rate differences (nearly six billion dinars), while the expenditure on indirect write-offs of investments and reserves was reduced by 33% to RSD 610.9 million.

The bank's end result, profit before taxation, grew 27.8 percent to RSD 3.35 billion, which is the best semi-annual result of this bank since 2008.

Raiffeisen's assets in Serbia dropped to RSD 192.4 billion at the end of June, so that the bank ranked fourth in the market, holding a share of 6.8 percent.