LINZ/Upper Austria. Hypo Oberösterreich can look back on a successful first half of 2022. Growth in financing and deposits as well as increases in interest and commission income underscore the good development in customer business. However, due to the uncertainties related to economic developments, loan loss provisions were increased as a precautionary measure.
The change in interest rates also led to negative valuation effects in the trading result. Overall, a half-year result before taxes of EUR 12.0 million was achieved, which does not quite come close to the excellent result of the previous year of EUR 14.9 million.
Total assets remained stable at EUR 8.06 billion (December 31, 2021: EUR 8.16 billion). “With our successful activities in customer business, we were able to absorb the difficult external conditions very well,” emphasizes Hypo General Director Klaus Kumpfmüller.
Strong lending business as a success factor
One of the success factors was once again a strong lending business. The financing volume rose from a high level by 180 million euros to 5.78 billion euros (December 31, 2021: 5.60 billion euros). The growth driver in the lending business was the large customer segment with the important customer groups of public institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises. Here, the financing volume increased by 6.5 percent to 3.10 billion euros (December 31, 2021: 2.91 billion euros).
The business with private, freely financed housing construction financing also went exceptionally well. A new volume of EUR 131 million was achieved in the first six months. This is an increase of almost 16 percent compared to the also very successful first half of 2021 and is therefore also well above the Austria-wide industry average (+ 5.5 %). “This clearly underscores our position as the number one housing bank in the state,” explains Kumpfmüller.
Savings increased
Despite the increased loan provisions, the low risk in the lending business compared to the rest of Austria is still remarkable. The level of risk provisioning reported in the balance sheet as of June 30, 2022 was only EUR 16.3 million (December 31, 2021: EUR 14.1 million). The impairment ratio of just 0.27 percent (December 31, 2021: 0.25 percent) remains the best among Austrian universal banks. The value of the important NPL ratio (non-performing loans) is also excellent. This was just 0.46 percent in the first half of 2022 (December 31, 2021: 0.35 percent). In Austria, the bank average here is almost two percent.
A new record level was recorded for customer deposits. Savings and giro deposits rose by 16.3 percent to EUR 2.26 billion (December 31, 2021: EUR 1.95 billion).
Good annual result is expected
“The operational business development this year is basically very positive. However, in view of the current geopolitical situation and the associated economic effects, there is increasing uncertainty among customers. This is already noticeable in the restrained securities turnover and also in a weakening of the demand for housing construction financing. We therefore expect a good result for 2022, which should be slightly below the previous year’s level,” emphasizes General Director Klaus Kumpfmüller.