NordLB Triples Net Income as Shipping Crisis Persists

Time:2014-04-30 Browse:56 Author:RISINGSUN
Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, one of the world’s top shipping lenders, almost tripled full-year profit, helped by a tax gain, and predicted a challenging 2014 as the shipping crisis drags on.

Net income rose to 245 million euros ($340 million) from 82 million euros in 2012, the state-owned bank based in the northern German city of Hanover said in a statement today. Provisions for risky loans, mostly in the bank’s shipping portfolio, were raised 41 percent to 846 million euros.

The lender, controlled by the German states of Lower Saxony and Saxony Anhalt, is trying to cut bad loans to shipping clients who are struggling to service their debt as a slump triggered by the global credit crunch persists. HSH Nordbank AG, the world’s largest financier of ships, earlier this month recorded the worst full-year result since 2008 as the shipping crisis and additional tax payments prompted the bank to boost provisions.

While NordLB expects 2014 to be “challenging” with “again above-average provisions for risks in ship financing,” it targets an increase in profit compared to last year, Chief Executive Officer Gunter Dunkel said in the statement.