Spar Nord upgrades its forecast for full-year earnings and loan impairment

7/6/2012 3:39 AM EST

Spar Nord Bank A/S
Company Announcement

Spar Nord upgrades its forecast for full-year earnings and loan impairment

Spar Nord upgrades its forecast for full-year earnings and loan impairment



Forecast for core earnings before impairment revised upwards to the DKK 900
million range 

In light of business developments in H1 2012, Spar Nord upgrades its forecast
for full-year core income by approx DKK 100 million. 

The primary reason for this upward revision is growth in activity-related
earnings, triggered in part by major remortgaging activity in the mortgage
credit area. To this should be added positive market-value adjustments of the
Bank’s bond portfolio as a result of the low interest level. 

Costs and expenses are still expected to end at the same level as in 2011, for
which reason the forecast for full-year core earnings before impairment is
upgraded from around DKK 800 million to around DKK 900 million. 



Extraordinary impairment of DKK 96 million as result of revised guidelines from
the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority 

After having reviewed the Bank’s lending portfolio, Spar Nord expects the
Bank’s loan impairment provisions, etc. in Q2 2012 to be about DKK 115 million
higher than in Q1 2012. 

DKK 96 million of the increase on Q1 is attributable to a more specific
formulation of the guidelines issued by the Danish Financial Supervisory
Authority regarding the valuation of collateral for facilities granted to
customers in the property and agricultural sectors. 

Thus, DKK 45 million of the increase is attributable to facilities granted to
customers in the property sector - specifically to the changed valuation of
collateral provided in connection with development projects. 

The balance of DKK 51 million is attributable to lending to the agricultural
sector - specifically to higher standard realisation costs in connection with
forced sales and a lower valuation of production equipment and foreign assets. 

In light of the extraordinary nature of the impairment provisions in Q2, the
Bank expects loan impairment to bounce back to the Q1 level, starting from Q3
2012. 



Interim Report for the first six months

Spar Nord’s Interim Report for H1 2012 will be published on 15 August as
scheduled. 



Please direct any enquiries you may have to Lasse Nyby, Chief Executive
Officer, at tel.+45 9634 4011, or Ole Madsen, Senior Vice President, Corporate
Communications, at tel. +45 9634 4010. 



Sincerely yours,

Spar Nord Bank A/S




Ole Madsen                                     
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications
Direct ext: +45 9634 4010