Erste Group - Profile - Česká spořitelna

Erste Group - Profile

Erste Group is one of the largest European providers of financial services and is the leading retail bank in Central Europe. It is the clear leader in Central European financial services, measured by number of customers and in the top 2 by total assets. Since 1997, the number of Erste Group clients has grown from 600,000 to more than 17 million as a result of expansion of the bank in Austria, the purchase of Česká spořitlena, Slovenská spořitelna, the Croatian Riječka Bank, the Hungarian Postabank in the autumn of 2003, the purchase of the Novosadska Banka in Serbia (August 2005) and Banca Commerciala Romana in Romania (December 2005). On 28 July 2006 Erste Bank announced the extension into the Ukraine market - majority stake in Bank Prestige.

Erste Group and its partners have a strong market position in the areas of retail banking products, property financing, business with private clients and services for small and medium businesses.

Erste Group Subsidiaries are Ceska Sporitelna (5.3 mil. clients, 660 branches, 29.4% retail deposit market share), Banca Comerciala Romana (4.5 mil. clients, 665 branches, 23.4% retail deposit market share), Erste Bank Austria (3.1 mil. clients, 1,053 branches, 19.1% retail deposit market share), Slovenska Sporitelna (2.5 mil. clients, 281 branches, 27.7% retail deposit market share), Erste Bank Hungary (0.9 mil. clients, 201 branches, 8.2% retail deposit market share), Erste Bank Croatia (0.8 mil. clients, 138 branches, 12.5% retail deposit market share), Erste Bank Serbia (0.2 mil. clients, 73 branches, 2.7% retail deposit market share) and Erste Bank Ukraine (0.1 mil. clients, 134 branches, 0.3% retail deposit market share).

Managing Board

Andreas Treichl, Chairman of the Managing Board
Franz Hochstrasser, Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board
Manfred Wimmer, Member of the Managing Board
Bernhard Spalt, Member of the Managing Board
Herbert Juranek, Member of the Managing Board
Martin Škopek, Member of the Managing Board

Shareholder Structure (%)

Institutional Investors	44.9
ERSTE Stiftung	26.1
Criteria CaixaCorp	10.1
Retail Investors	6.3
Savings banks	6.3
Capital Research	5.1
Employees	3.2

Financial Highlights

Profit and Loss Statement (IFRS) in EUR m	1-3/2010	1-3/2010	Y-on-Y change in %
net interest income	1,323.6	1,226.0	8.0
risk provisions for loans and advances	-531.2	-370.2	43.5
net fee and commission income	471.5	444.6	6.1
net trading results	141.2	143.8	-1.8
general administrative expenses	-953.1	-975.9	-2.3
other result	-49.4	-94.9	47.4
pre-tax profit from continuing operations	402.1	373.4	7.7
post-tax profit from discontinuing operations	0	0	na
net profit for the period	309.6	289.4	7.0
attributable to non-controlling interests	54.4	57.3	-5.1
attributable to owners of the parent	255.2	232.1	10.0

Erste Group started well into FY 2010, posting a strong operating result of EUR 983.2 million in Q1 2010, up 17.3% on Q1 2009, and net profit of EUR 255.2 million, up 10.0% on Q1 2009. Thecost/income ratio improved to 49.2%, from 53.8% in Q1 2009. Total assets increased by a significant 3.1% year-to-date to EUR 208.0 billion. This was mainly due to rising interbank and financial asset volumes, driven by strong growth in customer deposits (+3.2% year-to-date to EUR 115.6 billion).

Investment indicators

Representation in important indexes: Since the end of January 2001 Erste Bank shares have the greatest weight (20.2%) in the index of leading Austrian shares, the ATX. In February 2001 Erste Bank shares were also included on the MSCI Standard Index, and are listed on the DJ Euro Stoxx Banks Index, the FTSE EuroMid Index, the FTSE4 Good Europe Index and the FTSE Eurotop 300 index.

On 1 October 2002, Erste Bank began trading its shares on the Burza cenných papírů Praha, a.s. (Prague Stock Exchange). They thus became the first foreign shares traded on the Prague Stock Exchange.

Key regions - Central Europe: Erste Group offers its investors access to one of the fastest developing regions in Europe with low risks, largely thanks to strong, quality management and the stable Austrian domestic market.