Half Year 2024 Erste Group Bank AG Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Erste Group Bank AG. (EBKDY) posted another strong quarter with core revenues, NII, and fees up year on year.
- The bank upgraded its full-year guidance for both NII and fees, expecting NII to stay flat and fees to grow by 10%.
- The cost-to-income ratio is expected to remain comfortably below 50% for the second year in a row.
- Risk costs were limited to 6 basis points for the quarter, confirming the excellent quality of the loan book.
- The bank plans to complete a EUR500 million share buyback by year-end, complemented by a dividend of EUR3 per share for 2024.
- Overall revenues came in somewhat light in the second quarter due to one-off leasing income in the first quarter.
- The NPL coverage ratio excluding collaterals went down to about 80%, mainly due to releases of FLI and industry overlays.
- The CET1 ratio declined slightly since the start of the year due to the share buyback and pro rata dividend for 2024.
- The Austrian business showed sluggish demand in the second quarter, impacting overall loan growth.
- Other results were significantly worse than a year ago due to a one-off provision related to a possible EU court decision on VAT exemption.
Welcome to the second quarter 2024 results conference call of Erste Group. My name is Laura, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note, this call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I will now hand you over to your host, Thomas Sommerauer, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you, Laura, for the kind introduction, and also welcome from my side to everybody who is listening into our quarterly conference call. Today's call will be hosted by Peter Bosek, our Chief Executive Officer; Stefan Dorfler, our Chief Financial Officer; and Alexandra Habeler-Drabek, our Chief Risk Officer. They will lead you through a brief presentation highlighting the performance of the past quarter and also of the first half of 2024, after which time, we will be ready to take your questions.
Before handing over to Peter, the usual pointing to the disclaimer on page 2 as management will make a number of forward-looking statements. And with this, Peter, take it away,
Access to All Earning Calls and Stock Analysis | |
30-Year Financial on one screen | |
All-in-one Stock Screener with unlimited filters | |
Customizable Stock Dashboard | |
Real Time Insider Trading Transactions | |
8,000+ Institutional investors’ 13F holdings | |
Powerful Excel Add-in and Google sheets Add-on | |
All data downloadable | |
Quick customer support | |
And much more... |