Vom 30.05.19:
"First Quarter 2019 Profit After Tax (1) at Euro 27.5 million
Main Highlights
• Asset Quality continued to improve with NPE balances for the Group reduced by Euro 0.3 billion in Q1 2019. NPL transactions of circa Euro 4 billion to materialise towards the end of the year, as planned.
• Liquidity profile continued to improve with deposits in Greece up by 9.1% y-o-y to Euro 33 billion at the end of March 2019. Loan to Deposit ratio for the Group reduced further to 103% in Q1 2019 vs. 116% a year ago.
• Eurosystem funding was significantly reduced, down by Euro 4.8 billion y-o-y with ELA reliance fully eliminated since February 2019. In Q1 2019, the Bank continued to increase its repo transactions at improved pricing terms, reaching Euro 6.7 billion at the end of March 2019 vs. Euro 2.7 billion a year ago.
• Alpha Bank continued to extend credit to the private sector with new loan disbursements in Greece of Euro 0.6 billion in Q1 2019.
• Core Pre-Provision Income at Euro 212.5 million, down by 12.6% q-o-q, primarily affected by the lower Net Interest and Fee Income contribution. Net Interest Margin at 2.5% in Q1 2019, down by 30bps q-o-q, mainly due to lower loan spreads in the corporate sector.
• Recurring Operating expenses decreased by 3.5% y-o-y, mainly driven by lower General Expenses. Cost containment initiatives set to further improve our operational efficiencies in 2019.
• Income from financial operations in Q1 2019 stood at Euro 73.8 million, primarily attributable to the realisation of gains from our Greek Government Bonds portfolio.
• Impairment losses on loans significantly reduced to Euro 178.3 million in Q1 2019, implying a Cost of Risk (CoR) of 1.4% over gross loans in the quarter compared to an average of 3% in 2018.
• Profit After Tax at Euro 27.5 million, down from Euro 65.4 million in Q1 2018.
• Strong capital position with Fully Loaded Basel III CET 1 ratio stable q-o-q at 14%. Transitional CET1 ratio at 17%, affected by the anticipated phasing-in of IFRS 9 and Basel III amortisation as well as the impact of IFRS 16 first time adoption (FTA). Tangible Equity Book Value stable at Euro 7.7 billion.
• In May 2019, our subsidiary in Romania successfully completed a Euro 200 million covered bond issuance, the first ever covered bond issue from a Romanian Bank, enhancing the liquidity position of our subsidiary and contributing to its business goal of funding diversification.
(1) Profit After Tax attributable to Shareholders."