Banca dell'Artigianato e dell'Industria approves balance sheet as at December 31, 2002
Brescia, February 27, 2003 - In a meeting that was held on February 26, 2003, the Board of Directors of Banca dell'Artigianato e dell'Industria (a Credito Valtellinese Group member bank) approved the company balance sheet for 2002. The year ended December 31, 2002 recorded strong increases in both deposits and investments, as well as in the range of services offered to the customers, also thanks to the activity of the three branch offices opened in 2001.
Operating costs - consisting of administrative expenses and value adjustments in respect of both tangible and intangible fixed assets - amounted to € 3,927,000 (+ 18%).
In accordance with strategic policies that are being adopted by the Credito Valtellinese Group to further extend its commercial banking structure, four more branches are planned for opening during the current year. Situated in the province of Brescia, the new offices will consolidate the commercial network of the BAI and facilitate the relationship with the customers in its home territory.
Below are figures for the year ended December 31, 2002. A comparison with those for the previous year is testament to the steady growth of any balance-sheet aggregate.
As at December 31, 2002, direct deposits amounted to € 49,488,000, recording an increase by 24.65 percent if compared with € 39,700,000 as at December 31, 2001. Indirect deposits remained relatively unchanged: € 35,739,138 compared with € 35,564,000 as at December 31, 2001.
Strong performances also for insurance products - which were up 89.65%, to 2,244,000 euros - deriving from a wider range of opportunities that have been offered to customers wishing to find the best investment solutions, also thanks to the Group's commercial agreements and strategic alliance policy.
The year also saw strong increases in financial investments, which were up over 37%, from 64,596,000 to 88,710,000 euros.
Following the conversion of the second tranche of the subordinated convertible bond issue 2000-2005 and the exercise of the relative warrants, the share capital increased from 20,350,049 to 25,183,112 euros. As at December 31, 2002, Net Assets amounted to € 22,501,000 recording an increase by 29.85 percent if compared with 17,910,000 euros as at December 31, 2001.
As regards the company profit and loss account, the interest margin was up 29.49%: 3,100,000 euros compared with 2,394,000 euros in 2001.
The impact of the interest margin on the intermediation margin (4,220,000 euros) fell from 84% December, 2001 to 74% this year.
Administrative expenses stood at € 3,457,000, compared with € 2,830,000 for the previous year (+22.16%). The increase in administrative expenses is mainly due to the fact that in 2002 the bank had to sustain the costs for the opening of new branches for a longer period than the previous year (12 months, compared with only six months in 2001)
In particular, whilst staff expenses were up 23.71%, other administrative expenses saw an increase by 20.91percent, from 1,569,000 to 1,897,000 euros.
The gross operating income stood at € 294,000, compared with -490,000 euros for the previous year (+ 160%)
After entering provisions to the reserve for risks associated with the disbursement of credit facilities, with action for revocation of possible bankrupts and provisions to the reserve for taxes, profits for the year stood at -755,907 euros, compared with -838,001 in 2001 (+10%).
