Sanpaolo IMI Bank, the domestic arm of Italy's biggest financial group, in the first half of this year made 3.1 million euros in gross profit. Gross income thus increased by 12% from the level registered in the first half of last year.
The bank in the first half generated operating revenues worth 11.4m euros, up almost 38% against the same period of last year, according to the data IntesaSanpaolo published in Milan.
Operating expenses went up at a faster rate, though, by 43%, to 8.1m euros.
Sanpaolo IMI Romania thus derived operating income worth 3.3m euros in the first half, up 27% from the previous year.
The group has thus registered a constant growth pace, considering it announced a similar increase for its Romanian arm in March, too. In the first quarter, the bank had reached 1.4m-euro operating income. The group did not report net profits for the first six months.
In the first quarter, net income had fallen by 47%, to 0.4m euros, given the higher provisions set up for loans granted after the adoption of some new accounting policies in January 2007.
According to the data announced by the group, the Romanian arm was one of the least profitable among Central and Eastern Europe subsidiaries.
The group generated the biggest income on the Croatian market, with profits close to 110m euros. Sanpaolo Romania ranks as low as the eighth position, surpassing, in terms of income, only the subsidiaries of Albania (1.3m euros) and Bosnia, which operated at breakeven threshold.
IntesaSanpaolo did not provide any data on the loan volume or assets of Central and East-European subsidiaries. In March, the group had announced the domestic subsidiary had released loans worth 172m euros.
Sanpaolo IMI Romania currently operates a network of 42 branches. A March group report mentioned plans to "significantly" expand operations in Romania and Russia, considering the group's presence on these markets is still weak.
Thus, the group plans to expand territorial networks on these markets while making use of its expertise in the lending domain, but "external growth opportunities" are not ruled out, either.
As a matter of fact, IntesaSanpaolo is getting ready to absorb the domestic operations of CR Firenze bank, after having taken over the smaller Italian group.
IntesaSanpaolo has recently notified the Competition Council about achieving economic concentration as it has thus come to hold two banks on the domestic market.
After receiving the green light from the Competition Council for taking over CR Firenze Romania, the group may decide to merge its two domestic subsidiaries.
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