Swedbank Reports First Profit in More Than a Year

Swedbank AB, the largest lender in Air Max Tnthe Baltic countries, reported its first quarterly profit in more than a year and said earnings are likely to improve as loan impairments decline in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Net income was 536 million kronor ($75 million) afterKevin Durant a year-earlier loss of 3.36 billion kronor, Stockholm-based Swedbank said today. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a net loss of 520 million kronor. Loan losses fell by two-thirds to 2.21 billion kronor. Swedbank was the Swedish lender hit hardest by the economic crisis afterKevin Garnett Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania suffered the steepest recessions in the European Union last year. The bank, which relied on government guarantees for funding until last July, has raised a total of 27.5 billion kronor in two separate rights offers in the past two years to replenish capital. It posted losses in all four quarters of 2009. “The first-quarter profit was a big positive surprise and it is due mainly to Nike Air Foamposite onelower-than-expected loan loss provisions,” said Kimmo Rama, a Helsinki-based analyst at Evli Bank, who advises clients to buy Swedbank shares. Swedbank rose as much as 2.7 percent in Stockholm trading and was up 2 percent to Nike Air Sharkalaid Fresh Air74.80 kronor as of 9:32 a.m. local time. The stock has gained 5.4 percent this year. ‘Increasing Confidence’Nike Air Zoom Kobe Trainer “We have increasing confidence in a continuous profit improvement, provided that the global macro economy develops according to Nike Blue Chip-Kevin Durantcurrent expectations without any significant deviations, especially in Latvia and Ukraine,” Swedbank Chief Executive Officer Michael Wolf said in the statement. Impaired credit and loans that are more than 60 days overdue have Nike Flight Dunk Hoop Supremestopped rising in the Baltics, the real estate market has “shown signs of recovery,” and the inflow of new impaired loans in Russia and Ukraine has been “low,” Swedbank said. Its Baltic banking unit’s net loss narrowed to 1.22 billion kronor from 2.8 billion kronor a year earlier, after credit impairments fell by 50 percent to 2.1 billion kronor. The level of problem loans for banks operating in theNike free 5.0 Baltic countries, led by Swedbank and Stockholm-based SEB AB and Nordea AB, will continue to grow in the coming quarters, Moody’s Investors Service said on April 26. “We expect loan losses to peak only later in the year, Nike Shox Shoes BB4as asset quality indicators should start to stabilize with a certain time lag after these countries reach the bottom of their respective economic downturn,” Moody’s said in a report. Exiting ProgramNike Zoom Kobe 5.5 Swedbank said on April 9 that it would leave the Swedish aid program,Nike Zoom Kobe III which guarantees as much as 1.5 trillion kronor of interbank lending, with “immediate effect” after raising funding independently in the market. The bank borrowed a total 421.2 billion kronor using the government guarantees and will hold parts of that debt until July 2014. Net interest income, the difference between what the Swedish bank makes from lending and pays for deposits, slumped 31 percent to 4.02 billion kronor in Nike Zoom Kobe IV All Starthe first quarter. Swedbank expects the pressure on the net interest income margin to “bottom out” in the second half of this year. “Net interest income on the other hand wasNike Zoom Kobe V a big disappointment,” said Rama. “The focus now is on the core profitability of banks, and particularly on the net interest income.” Swedbank was the first major Nordic bank to report earnings forNike Zoom LeBron James Soldier the quarter. SEB, the second-largest lender in the Baltics, and Nordea, the biggest bank in the Nordic region, and Svenska Handelsbanken AB are all scheduled to publish results tomorrow. Swedish investment company Cevian Capital has acquired more than 2 percent of the shares in Swedbank and may try to merge the lender with Sweden’s SEB AB, Dagens Nyheter newspaper reported today, without saying where it got the information.