OREANDA-NEWS. On 10 March 2009 was announced, that according to the audited consolidated financial results for 2008, the AS BIGBANK group made 144.8 million kroons in profit for the year, while the company's Baltic States loan portfolio remained at much the same level as in 2007, growing by 4.5%.

By the end of the year the group's loan portfolio was worth 2.289 billion kroons. The proportions of the BIGBANK portfolio were 50.4% in Estonia, 40.2% in Latvia and 9.4% in Lithuania. The greatest growth in the portfolio took place on the Lithuanian market, where the volume of client claims increased over the twelve months by 154.7 million kroons, i.e. more than 2.5 times. BIGBANK launched operations in Lithuania in autumn 2007.

The 144.8 million kroons in consolidated net profit for 2008 was less than in 2007, when 177.3 million kroons in profit was earned. The profitability of the company was most affected by the growth in interest expenditure and the increase in loan provisions. Interest revenue in 2008 amounted to 686.3 million kroons, compared to 248.3 million kroons in interest expenditure.

The total value of BIGBANK's fixed-term deposits reached 630.6 million kroons at the end of 2008, compared to 183.9 million kroons at the end of 2007.

Targo Raus, Chairman of the Board of BIGBANK, says that the bank was forced to take a more conservative line than in recent years in its operations because of the surrounding macroeconomic environment, but still managed to maintain a reasonable level of profitability. "We expect we'll be operating along similar lines throughout 2009 as well," he explained.

BIGBANK continued to pursue a conservative policy of liquidity management in 2008 and increased the volume of available funds in its bank accounts. The total value of the bank's liquid resources at the end of 2008 was 479.4 million kroons, representing 16.5% of its balance sheet volume. The same figures in 2007 were 369.0 and 14.1%, respectively.

The amounts transferred to the reserve for potential bad loans were increased during the year, with the reserve valued at 210.8 million kroons by the end of 2008 (compared to 101.7 million kroons at the end of 2007). Boosting the reserve was again connected to principles of determining conservative deductions, including a special collective deduction introduced at the end of the 3rd quarter as a result of the worsening in the macroeconomic environment in Latvia. At the same time, other revenue connected to recovery proceedings increased, to a value of 129.0 million kroons, compared to 52.8 million kroons in 2007.

At the end of 2008 BIGBANK employed a total of 512 people in 45 branches throughout the Baltic States.

BIGBANK AS is an Estonian-owned specialist credit institution with subsidiaries in Latvia and Lithuania. The bank also offers its range as cross-border services in Finland. Its bonds are listed on the Tallinn and Stockholm stock exchanges.