STATE-OWNED BUILDING SOCIETY EBS has recorded a pre-tax loss of €250m for the first six months of the year, but reported a small operating profit before provisions for bad debt and losses on loans transferred to NAMA were taken into account.
The bank’s operations made a profit of €25.6m in the six months to June, having cut costs by 5% in that period – despite its total income falling to €70.8m, a drop of 14.3%.
The state-owned institution – nationalised when the government was forced to recapitalise it in June to the tune of €875m – lost €156.8m based on the haircut offered to NAMA for the transfer of impaired loans, while €118.7m has been set aside for future underperforming loans.
EBS’s chief executive Fergus Murphy says, however, that the society’s plans to recapitalise itself are ‘well advanced‘ and that any future exposure by the Exchequer would be minimised.
A large amount of this capital requirement would be raised, he said, by the sale of the operation; the National Treasury Management Agency has received four bids for the building society on the government’s behalf, and is due to announce the successful bidder next month.
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