Halkbank announces 19 pct rise in profits

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Lender Halkbank is satisfied with its market profit figures in the third quarter. DAILY NEWS photo

Turkey’s Halkbank, the state-controlled lender which is planning an initial public offering, has posted a 19 percent increase in its third quarter profits at nearly 600 million Turkish Liras.

However, the lender’s profits fell by 15 percent from a quarter earlier.

The bank said in a filing to the Istanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) yesterday that its net profits nine months into 2012 reached 1.85 billion liras, or roughly $1 billion.

The bank’s market profit, a strong figure in its third quarter sheet, increased by 370 percent from the same period last year, to 224.2 million liras.

The lender said in a press release yesterday that it was confident about an 18 percent credit growth this year. Its credit value reached 82 billion liras.

Focus on deposits

“We can see that the economy authorities tend toward policies that vastly decrease public debt stock and foreign trade gaps by correctly analyzing developments in the global and domestic markets,” said Chief Executive Officer Süleyman Aslan in the press release. “Halkbank focused on deposits growth in a bid to support the country’s tendency to increase savings.”