PRAGUE, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Czech lender MONETA Money Bank said on Friday it expects annual net profit in 2023
to slip due to the impact of a windfall tax, before gradually
picking up in the coming years.
For the year ended Dec. 31, the bank reported a full-year
profit of 5.2 billion crowns ($238.88 million), above the
lender's own outlook, boosted by higher interest rates and
better-than-expected risk costs.
The bank, which said earlier it expected the state's new
windfall tax on the country's biggest banks to reduce its
profitability by 10-15% over the next three years, expects net
profit to fall to 4.3 billion crowns in 2023, before rising to
4.4 billion and 4.5 billion respectively in the next two years.
Net profit was expected to rise above 5 billion from 2026,
when its effective tax rate falls, the bank said.
It forecast operating income to reach 12.0 billion crowns in
2023, roughly unchanged from 2022, and said it aims to deliver
cumulative net profit of 23.6 billion crowns in the next five
years.
MONETA, which proposed an 8 crown per share dividend for
2022 earnings, reported a higher-than-expected net profit of
1.06 billion crowns ($48.67 million) in the fourth quarter.
($1 = 21.7680 Czech crowns)
(Reporting by Jason Hovet; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
