Helaba gets off to a good start in 2013 financial year

Frankfurt am Main (ots) -

- Cross reference: Document is available at
http://www.presseportal.de/dokumente -

- Operating revenues at previous year's level
- Integration of S-Group Bank NRW making progress
- Cautiously optimistic for 2013 financial year

Helaba, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, achieved group-wide earnings
before taxes of EUR 163 million in the first quarter of 2013,
compared to EUR 220 million in the same period of the previous year.
Net interest income after provisions for loans and advances grew by
more than 19 per cent to EUR 229 million, due to an increase in
income from customer-related business and the integration of the
S-Group Bank NRW. Provisions for loans and advances, at EUR 54
million, remained at a similar level to the year before. Valuation
standards continue to be conservative. Net commission income rose by
23 per cent to EUR 75 million and net trading income reached EUR 114
million, representing a drop of EUR 94 million against the same
quarter of the previous year, which was strongly characterised by
appreciations in value. At EUR 7 million, the result of
hedges/derivatives showed a positive development in comparison with
last year. When the result from financial investments of EUR -16
million as well as the other operating result of EUR 60 million is
included, operating revenues, amounting to EUR 469 million, remained
on last year's level. General administration expenses were 23 per
cent above last year's amount, reaching EUR 306 million. The reasons
for this were, among other things, the integration of staff from the
S-Group Bank NRW, higher capital investment in IT projects as well as
an increase in costs for the bank levy.

The balance sheet total of the Helaba Group fell by around 5 per
cent compared with 31 December 2012 to EUR 188.3 billion. On the
asset side, the biggest changes resulted from a reduction in loans
and advances to banks including cash reserve, of EUR 7.6 billion, and
a fall in financial investments of EUR 1.6 billion. Loans and
advances to customers remained almost the same at EUR 91 billion. The
medium and long-term new business volume, of EUR 3.5 billion, built
on the positive development of the previous year. Helaba's Tier-1
capital ratio was calculated at 11.2 per cent; the total capital
ratio is 15.9 per cent.

Hans-Dieter Brenner, CEO of Helaba, expressed his satisfaction at
the result: "We got off to a good start in the 2013 financial year.
The first quarter of 2013 was successful, in terms of both new
business volume and earnings performance. In spite of a
"normalisation" in the trading income, due to developments on the
market, we were able to keep the operating result on last year's high
level. All earnings components are fully in line with our
projections. The quarterly result of EUR 163 million represents as
much as 30 per cent of that of last year. However, it would be
premature to extrapolate this trend onto the entire year. Should the
current phase of low interest rates be sustained, we anticipate that
earnings from operating business will stabilise on levels seen in
recent years. Overall, we continue to be cautiously optimistic for
2013 as a whole.

Press and Communication

MAIN TOWER · Neue Mainzer Straße 52-58
60311 Frankfurt am Main
www.helaba.de
Tel.: +49 (0) 69 / 9132 - 2192

Wolfgang Kuß
E-Mail: wolfgang.kuss@helaba.de

Ursula-Brita Krück
E-Mail: ursula-brita.krueck@helaba.de