First-quarter net income at ABN increased to E895 million from E825 million a year earlier. Operating profit rose to E1.35 billion from E1.32 billion. Sales improved to E5.31 billion from E5.04 billion.
However, the most significant statistic was the 52% reduction in provisions for bad loans, reducing the bank’s exposure to E99 million from E209 million a year ago.
Despite the strong face value of the figures, ABN’s health is only skin deep. The bank is finding it difficult to grow its core lines of business, relying on asset sales and provision reductions to make a profit.
With this in mind, its pursuit of Italian bank Antonveneta, which is being put under considerable threat from domestic competition, takes on even more importance as a possible solution to finding new business and profit lines.
