Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Greece’s Alpha Bank hit by sharp fall in profits

Financial Times
March 22, 2011

Greece’s Alpha Bank has announced a sharp fall in full-year net profits as a deepening recession affected credit growth and triggered a jump in bad-loan provisions.

The third-largest Greek lender said 2011 net profits declined to €85.6m, following a one-off tax charge of €61.8m imposed under the government’s fiscal austerity programme.

The figure marked a 75.5 per cent decline in net profit from €349.8m the previous year.

Spyros Filaretos, Alpha’s chief operating officer, dismissed persistent speculation that failed merger discussions with its larger rival National Bank of Greece would be resumed.

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