Banc Sabadell had a net profit of €231.9 million in 2011

Barcelona (ACN).- Catalan Banc Sabadell obtained a net profit of €231.9 million euros in 2011, according to figures published by the company, after allocating new provisions for €1.048 billion to strengthen its core capital. Banc Sabadell’s net profit for 2011 is 39% lower than what the entity achieved in 2010. Active capital management carried out during 2011 by Spain’s fifth largest banking group placed core capital at 10.3% (8.2% in 2010). Net interest income rose 5.4% last year and the margin before provisions grew by 8.3%, which exceeded the market consensus. The strong organic growth allowed Banc Sabadell to gain market share in all its products and now has 2.7 million clients after adding 342,000 new clients in 2011.

In 2011, and coinciding with the entity’s 130^th anniversary, Banc Sabadell had a net attributable profit of €231.9 million (39% lower than in 2010). Despite the current adverse economic environment, Banc Sabadell stated that it met its objectives in 2011 and consolidated results in line with expectations. According to Banc Sabadell, the bank’s positive position was achieved thanks to a combination of key factors that include dynamic asset management, an excellent top line performance, strong growth in business volumes and an increase in supplementary provisions using extraordinary revenue.

Focusing on the balance sheet

Banc Sabadell took measures to continue strengthening its balance sheet. For instance, the results of active capital management improved the entity’s capital ratios and set its core capital at 10.3%. At the end of 2011, Banc Sabadell’s total assets exceeded €100 billion for the first time, an improvement of 3.4% year-on-year.

Gross loans to customers reached €73.635 billion, a 0.8% increase compared to 2010. Personal loans rose too, by almost €2 billion. The entity also enlarged its business in Spain when it decided to buy Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM) in December.

An increase of Banc Sabadell’s services and clients

In 2011, the Catalan financial company increased its number of new customers by 43%, in the case of private individuals (which in numbers would be 286,560), and by 40%, when talking about companies (55,536 more). At the end of last year, Banc Sabadell’s products and services had reached 2.7 million clients.