BPI profits plummet 63%
Portugal’s BPI bank presented positive consolidated results of €134.5 million for the first six months of the year.
But without extraordinary effects the bank’s profits had gone down by 63% on the like-for-like period the previous year.
The sharp fall in profits is explained by extraordinary operations recorded for the start of 2018, as well as the change in accounting at Banco Formento de Angola (BFA).
In 2017 profits at the bank were just €10.2 million but by the end of 2018 profits stood at nearly half a billion euros.
“In comparing the like-for-like first half of 2018, the evolution of the consolidated result (-63%) is rather influenced by the positive extraordinary impacts recorded in the first half of 2018 (+€118 million), essentially gains from the sale of share holdings which were not repeated in 2019” states the bank headed by Pablo Forero.
The bank, which is owned by Spanish bank CaixaBank, also explained the fall on the “change in the accounting classification of BFA at the end of 2018, so that the consolidated result is now only reflected in BFA dividends”.
In the first six months, the Angolan bank contributed €38.1 million, more than the €9.5 million to do with BPI’s financial stake in Mozambique, in BCI (Banco de Comércio e Indústria).
The bank notes that the “net profit from activity registered in Portugal reached €86.9 million, which corresponds to a like-for-like reduction of 17% explained by impairments of €11 million in recovery funds and a reduction in profits of €5 million from financial operations and other provisions.”