Bankinter gets there early

LAST year was good for Bankinter, with a pre­tax result of €785 million and a 46 per cent increase.

With a net profit of just over €560 million, a 28 per cent increase on 2021, Madrid ­ based Bankinter reached its 2023 profit target a year early, enabling the bank to overtake its pre ­ pandemic results.

Last year’s showing was especially encouraging, as 2021’s figures still included four months of income from Linea Directa, whose segregation from the bank was announced in 2020. This also converted Bankinter shareholders into the independent, publicly ­ traded insurance company’s shareholders.

Return on Equity (ROE) stood at 12 per cent, compared to 2021’s 9.6 per cent while only 2.1 per cent of Bankinter clients defaulted on loans, despite the worsening economic environment.

“All these figures are amongst the best at European level,” the bank pointed out.

The bank’s Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio, a measure of its solvency rose to 12 per cent, comfortably above the minimum 7.7 per cent requirement that the European Central Bank established for Bankinter in 2023.

The bank’s Spanish investment portfolio increased by just over 5 per cent, six times more than the sector’s average growth, according to Bank of Spain figures an ­ nounced last November. Outside Spain, this rise was still more evident, with a 15 per cent increase in Portuguese investments while lending doubled in Ireland.

As of December 31, 2022, the total assets were €107.5 billion, similar to the previous year’s, with credit investment to customers up by 9 per cent to €74.2 billion.

ICONIC British bootmaker Dr Martens announced that unseasonably warm weather had affected sales, prompting the company’s second profit warning in two months.

Problems with US warehousing including a bottleneck at the new Los Angeles distribution centre had also hit profits, together with higher costs and complications arising from strikes at Felixstowe port and Netherlands staff shortages.

It now foresees full­year profits not exceeding £260 million (€297.8 million), amounting to £26 million (€29.8 million) below its original predictions.