Barcelona-based CaixaBank earns €408 million in the first half of 2013, 146% more than last year

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan bank, which is the highest financial entity within the Spanish market, obtained a net profit of €408 million between January and June, the company announced on Friday. This figure is 2.45 times higher than that of last year for the same period thanks to the integration of Banca Cívica and Banc de València. In fact, in the last year the Catalan bank has significantly increased its size with the acquisition of these two other financial entities within the restructuring process of the Spanish banking sector. The bank which is owned by La Caixa and chaired by Isidre Fainé increased its reserves to €5.38 billion, 44% more than the €3.74 billion figure last year. These reserves also incorporate the €540 million to cover the impact of the obligation to include in the accounts of the refunded loans. In the presentation of the results, CaixaBank’s Vice-President and CEO, Joan Maria Nin, confirmed the Catalan banking giant will “have a look” at the conditions of the auctions of Catalunya Banc and Nova Caixa Galicia. Both were nationalised by the Bank of Spain and the Spanish Government and will be returned to the private sector in the coming months after an important restructuring process. Nin also recognised that the funding system for SMEs in Spain can be significantly “improved” since they suffer because of the bond spread of Spain’s sovereign debt and have to pay a difference of four percentage points compared to their competitors in other European countries. Nin argued that there is a single market and a single currency but the price of money is still conditioned by the sovereign bonds, a system that penalises peripheral countries.

CaixaBank’s €408 million of net profit earned in the first six months of the year is significantly higher than the €166 million earned in the same period of 2012. The increase is mostly due to the integration of Banca Cívica and Banc de València, which incorporated their business within CaixaBank’s on the 1^st of July 2012 and on the 1^st of January respectively. In fact, the integration of Banca Cívica’s IT platform was fully integrated during the first six months of the year and that of Banc de València will be fully integrated next Monday. The integration of these two banks resulted in an increase of the revenue coming from the banking business as a whole. The sustained increase of the banking business and that of the dividends of the shares that CaixaBank has in other companies are responsible for the positive figures. In fact, dividends brought in €3.63 billion, a 6.3% increase on the same period of 2012.

CaixaBank has consolidated during the first half of the year its position as the largest retail bank within the Spanish market, with 13.8 million clients and €350.99 billion assets, a 0.8% increase on the end of June 2012. In addition, CaixaBank’s turnover reached €526.55 billion, a 2.4% increase on this time last year. Out of this business portfolio, €305.59 billion are client resources (5% more than a year ago) and €220 billion come from the value of client loans (which decreased by 0.9%). The Barcelona-based bank explained that the reduction of the credit volume is due to the leverage process shared by most of the families and companies. The bank stated that the loans for real estate promoters were reduced by 7.5%. In fact, without taking into account the loans for real estate promoters and large companies, CaixaBank’s credit activity increased by 0.3%. According to the Catalan financial entity, in the last 12 months, CaixaBank gave 1.1 million loans worth 82.55 billion.