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Krung Thai Bank Q3 net profit tumbles
Real estate news By Reuters
Fri Oct 19, 2007 2:05am EDT
Krung Thai Bank PCL (KTB.BK: Quote, Profile, Research), Thailand's second-biggest bank by assets, reported a much worse than expected 84 percent fall in third-quarter net profit on Friday, dragged down by shrinking loan growth and provisions. State-run Krung Thai said its net profit fell to 825 million baht ($24 million), or 0.07 baht per share, in the July-September quarter, well below an average forecast of 2.71 billion baht by 12 analysts surveyed by Reuters.
The results were also well short of its 5.08 billion baht profit a year earlier, but above the previous quarter's 377 million baht profit, which was pared by 6.9 billion baht in loan-loss provisions. Political and economic uncertainty following last year's bloodless coup had affected its debt repayments and loan expansion, analysts said. KTB would probably add another 8 billion baht in provisions in the second half of this year, they said.
The bank's lending growth this year was likely to be half its 6 percent target due to slow government spending on infrastructure projects in the wake of the coup, brokers said. The bank's full-year 2007 net profit is forecast to fall 29 percent to 10 billion baht, according to Reuters Estimates, after rising 8 percent in 2006. Shares in Krung Thai Bank, which has a market value of $4.05 billion on the Thai bourse, dropped nearly 6 percent in the July-September period, lagging the 8.8 percent rise of the main Thai benchmark stock index.
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