OREANDA-NEWS. November 02, 2012. SEB Grupp published the economic results for the 3rd quarter of 2012. Information about the results is available here: www.sebgroup.com/ir 

Riho Unt, Chairman of the Management Board of SEB Pank, commented on the result of the entities of SEB in Estonia as follows:

Payment of housing loans will increase
“The housing loan market of private persons has considerably recovered this year and this has resulted in loan portfolio of private persons growing for the second quarter successively. Payment of new housing loans increased in the third quarter by 32 per cent compared to the same period of the year before. Improvement of living conditions has become topical again, as loan interests are low and family budgets have become stronger with increased savings. At the same time the sense of security of private persons is still fragile and decisions on loans are made only if all risks concerning lending have been managed. Thus more than 60 per cent of new loans from SEB are assumed together with loan protection insurance.

Growth of entrepreneurship
Growth of entrepreneurship is pleasing – Estonia has exited the recession being more enterprising than before and it gives reason to think that economic growth will be broader than during the previous decade. There is no county in Estonia where more new enterprises, employers have emerged than there were in 2007. Eighty per cent of Estonians work in small or medium-sized enterprises, thus success of these employers influences the development of Estonia to a great extent. SEB co-operates with this target group closely and is currently conducting a spectacular project during which client executives visit almost 900 enterprises to help the enterprises conduct a thorough financial analysis and map risks for following years.

During recent client meetings an important topic that has emerged is the increase of input prices and production costs of production enterprises, while export markets are not yet ready to accept the changes in prices. Therefore, it could be presumed that profitability of exporting production enterprises will reduce in the second half of this year and in the beginning of the next year. Entrepreneurs also feel the rising insecurity in our main export markets. Thus, it is extremely important for the enterprises to manage their liquidity wisely and SEB wishes to share this knowledge and skills thorugh this consultancy project.

Economic results of SEB steadily strong

Economic results of the units of SEB Estonia continued to be strong in the third qaurter. We were able to increase our income by five per cent and reduce costs by the same percentage compared to the beginning of the year. Deposits grew by 4.3 per cent and the loan portfolio is about to grow again after years of decrease. Profit was influenced by making general loan provisions, which was resulted from conservative risk assessment policy by SEB.”

The entities of SEB Estonia completed the third quarter of 2012 with a MEUR 17.3 profit.

SEB Estonia completed the third quarter of 2011 with a MEUR 23.9 profit. In the third quarter, the operating profit of SEB Estonia amounted to MEUR 34.7 (MEUR 32.9 in the third quarter of 2011) and operating costs to MEUR 15.2 (MEUR 16.1 in the third quarter of 2011). In the third quarter of 2012, the bank increased loan loss provisions by MEUR 2.1 (in the same period of 2011, the bank decreased the provisions by MEUR 7). The total profit for the nine months amounted to MEUR 58.9 (MEUR 71.9 in the last year).