At Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, confidence is growing after good business in recent months. The board of directors is also setting itself ambitious medium-term goals.
After a good first half of the year, Germany’s third largest Landesbank Helaba is aiming for a significant profit increase for the year as a whole.
“All in all, we can definitely assume that the good development that we saw in the first six months will also carry us into the second half of the year,” said the CEO of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba ), Thomas Groß, on Thursday in Frankfurt. “In this respect, we are confident that we will noticeably exceed the goals we have set for ourselves.”
The institute aims to generate at least EUR 500 million in pre-tax profit annually over the next few years. Another 500 million euros is the target figure for the commission result, which is fed, for example, from the bank’s income as a service provider for savings banks in Hesse, Thuringia, North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg.
In 2020, which was marked by the Corona crisis, Helaba had earned EUR 223 (previous year: 518) million before taxes, and after taxes there was a profit of EUR 177 (470) million in the books. When the balance sheet was presented in March, Groß had forecast pre-tax earnings at the previous year’s level for 2021. It is now to be expected that the 223 million euros before taxes in the current year would be significantly exceeded, said Groß on Thursday.
“We got off to a really good start to the year and were well on our way in the months of the first half of the year,” said the Helaba boss. “And that applies to all of our business segments.” Groß had defined, among other things, the support of wealthy private customers via the Helaba subsidiary Frankfurter Bankgesellschaft as well as the processing of payment transactions as growth areas.
The institute has further increased its provision for possible loan defaults, “even if we continue to have hardly any noteworthy defaults,” said Groß. “We are not expecting a wave of bankruptcies or a tsunami, the support programs were big enough for that.” Nevertheless, some companies will fall by the wayside. “We are already assuming that one or the other risk could hit in the next one or two years,” said the Helaba boss.
Internally, the Executive Board is also on the cost brake. The announced reduction of 380 to 400 jobs has been done by more than a third, said Groß. He assured: “There are no plans to add another staff reduction program.”
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
