Garanti’s Q2 profit up, beats forecasts

Turkish lender Garanti Bank, partly owned by Spain’s BBVA, posted a 2.5 percent increase in its second-quarter profit as loans grew 16 percent in the year to date. Net profit for the quarter rose to 943.2 million lira ($552 million), beating the average forecast of 893.1 million lira given in a Reuters poll of analysts. “The bank surprised both us and the market on the upside,” wrote Seker Securities in a research note. “However there are some mixed signals regarding the bank’s market penetration as Garanti lost some market share in FX loans, retail loans, credit card loans and TL deposits,” it said. Garanti’s net interest income in the second quarter was 1.09 billion lira, down 11 percent from a year earlier. Total lending is up 16 percent since the end of 2010 at 81.6 billion lira. Turkey’s lenders are under pressure from the central bank as it seeks to limit credit expansion and cool red-hot economic growth.   The central bank has raised banks’ required reserve ratios five times since last November in order to limit the amount of money banks can issue as loans and increase borrowing costs. Turkey’s banking regulator has also sought permission this week to increase costs for banks. From / Gulf Today