Dutch financial services company ABN Amro has improved its profit for the first three quarters of the year by 8.7% to E3.4 billion compared to the corresponding period of 2005.
Total operating income also increased by an impressive 20%, thanks in part to the integration of recently acquired Italian lender Banca Antonveneta. Total operating income for the nine-month period came in at E17.5 billion compared to E14.6 billion in 2005. However, on a negative note, operating profit before tax fell 2.9% to E4.1 billion.
The first nine months of 2006 have been very much a period of transition as we have focused on implementing and extracting the benefits of the new group structure. Although our earnings are higher than the same period last year, it is imperative that we accelerate the improvement of our performance in order to deliver on our TRS goal by the end of 2008, commented ABN Amro’s chairman, Rijkman Groenink.
The firm intends to strengthen its business by expanding its operations in Latin America and Asia and through cutting E300 million in costs from its US and European divisions.