Austrian banking group Erste Bank reports a net profit of 649.3 million euro profit in the first nine months of the year, up from 508.8 million, with the total value of assets growing 6% from 152.7 billion by the end of 2005 to 162.6 billion. The operational profit grew 16.2.% to 1,398.8 million euro during the period, while operational income grew 9.9% to 3,511.1 million.
The acquisition of a 61.9% stake in Romania’s biggest bank, the Romanian Commercial Bank-BCR, concluded on October 12, 2006. The new subsidiary will be included in the Este Bank Group consolidated results starting with that date. Due to restructuring costs, there is no significant BCR contribution to the Erste Bank Group profit for 2006.
