Hellenic Bank on Friday announced after tax profit of €28.6m for the first quarter of 2018 and said it was making further progress in implementing its main strategic priorities of resolving its non-performing exposures and of prudently growing its balance sheet.
The Group maintains its strong capital position with a CET1 ratio of 13.9% and total capital adequacy ratio of 17.6%, both on a transitional basis, well above minimum regulatory capital requirements, it added.
During the first quarter of 2018, €139m of loans were approved for industry sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, wholesale trade and transportation, as well as households. This was up a yearly 56%, reflecting increased new lending momentum.
The bank said that within the framework of the Bank’s “Fix” strategy and efforts to resolve its asset quality problem, it has agreed to sell a non-performing loan portfolio of predominantly non-retail unsecured exposures, to B2Kapital Cyprus Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwegian B2Holding ASA. The gross contractual outstanding balance of the portfolio was €145m comprising of 1,158 borrowers and 1,977 facilities (in each case as at September 2017). In May 2018, the Central Bank granted a credit acquiring and servicing company licence to B2Kapital Cyprus Ltd .
