Turkey’s Akbank full year profit drops 15 pct
Posted by meb at February 16th, 2009
Akbank, Turkey’s biggest bank by market value, said full-year profit dropped 15 percent as the credit crisis increased the cost of funding and lending fell. Net income at the Istanbul-based lender fell to 1.7 billion Turkish Liras ($1.03 billion) from 1.99 billion liras a year earlier, the bank said Friday in a filing with the Istanbul Stock Exchange.
That missed the 1.83 billion liras median estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The global crisis started by the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market in 2007 has made it more expensive for companies like Akbank to borrow abroad to fund lending. Turkish banks’ loan growth slowed to 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency said Feb. 10.
Inevitable
“A weaker performance in the fourth quarter was inevitable given the global turmoil,” said Sadrettin Bagci, an analyst at Istanbul-based Finans Invest. “Everyone is suffering from cash-flow problems.”
Profit from trading in stocks, bonds and other securities fell to 44.7 million liras from 149.3 million liras a year earlier. Loans in the final quarter fell to 44.4 billion liras from 45.1 billion liras a quarter earlier. The company got syndicated loans worth $600 million from foreign banks in December. Akbank is controlled by Sabancı Holding.
Citigroup Inc. holds a 20 percent stake.
source: Hurriyet daily news
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