VTB group's first half net profit skyrockets 114 %

Russia's VTB group, which includes the country's second largest VTB bank, saw its first half 2011 net profit jump 113.5 percent year-on-year to 53.6 billion rubles ($1.85 billion) to IFRS, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday. VTB's return on equity reached 18.1 percent in January-June this year compared to 9.7 percent in the same period in 2010, while operating income before provisions rose 45.2 percent to 153.0 billion rubles. "Net interest income including net recovery of losses on initial recognition of financial instruments and loan restructuring amounted to 105.0 billion rubles for the first six months of 2011, up 21.4 percent year-on-year," VTB said. Staff costs and administrative expenses increased 53.3 percent to 67.3 billion rubles due to the consolidation of TransCreditBank from last December, the expansion of VTB24's retail branch network, and higher revenues in the key operating segments. The non-performing loan ratio shrank to 7.7 percent of total gross loans as of June 30, 2011 compared to 8.6 percent at the end of the first quarter of this year. The volume of corporate loans stood at 2.668 trillion rubles compared to 2.518 trillion rubles at the beginning of the year.