This article appeared in Fort Russ in translation of Kristina Rus, originally appeared at Deutsche Welle
In the first quarter of 2015 most profit of Raiffeisen Bank International was made by a subsidiary in Russia, reported on Thursday, May 21, the company’s website. The profit of the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International for the period, net of taxes decreased by 41.2 percent compared with the first quarter of 2014 – to 100 million euros. The Russian branch earned 95 million euros, according to the financial report of the Bank for the first three months of the year. The consolidated result of the losses of the Bank declined by 48.1% and amounted to 83 million euros. “Due to exchange rate fluctuations,” net interest income of the Bank decreased by 12.1% to 175 million euros.
According to the chief risk officer Johann Strobl, in the second half of the year an increase in “bad” loans may cause concern in Russia. The Bank’s CFO Martin Grull stressed that the results of the Ukrainian branch were negatively affected by the devaluation of the local currency and the overall economic situation in the country.
Early in the year, Raiffeisen Bank International decided to sell its branches in Poland and Slovenia and reduce branches in Russia and Ukraine. Thus, the Bank hopes by 2017 to increase adequacy ratio of core capital from 10 to 12 percent, reports Reuters.