Turkish lender raises profit in nine months

ISTANBUL

Akbank’s total assets exceeded 191 biliion liras, said CEO Binbaşgil.

Turkey’s Akbank said late on Nov. 5 its consolidated net profit had grown to 2.4 billion Turkish Liras ($1.2 billion) in the nine months leading up to September, from 1.9 billion liras a year ago. Its net profit, however, fell to 562.7 million liras ($279 million) in the third quarter, below market expectations and down from 779 million liras a year earlier.

”Primarily two developments have affected the global markets in the first three quarters of the year. The first one is the Fed announcement in May which indicated clues for a potential tapering. The other is the debate around the United States’ budget crisis that topped the agenda in the months following the Fed’s May announcement. Despite the volatility in the financial markets triggered by these developments, our total assets exceeded 191 billion Turkish Liras with an over 17 percent increase in the first nine months of the year. Our support to the Turkish economy via our cash and non-cash loans reached 140 billion Turkish Liras with an over 26 percent growth in the same period,” said Akbank CEO Hakan Binbaşgil in a written statement yesterday.

Binbaşgil pointed out that Akbank continued to stand by its consumers by providing financing on favorable terms, innovative products and services and said, “We continue to support the consumers via our consumer loans that topped 26 billion liras.”