VIENNA (Reuters) – Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) has realized additional forward-looking risk provisions of around 150 million euros ($163 million) for the real estate sector, the Austrian bank’s risk chief, Hannes Moesenbacher, said on Tuesday.
Chief Executive Johann Strobl added that these provisions are “on top” and therefore go beyond what can be modelled.
Moesenbacher declined to answer shareholders’ questions at an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday about the bank’s exposure to the troubled Signa Group of Austrian real estate investor Rene Benko, instead referring to banking secrecy.
“In total, our top five commitments in the real estate sector amount to 2.2 billion euros,” said Moesenbacher, who added that number one position amounted to 755 million euros.
Shareholders had convened the meeting, among other reasons, to resolve the distribution of a 2022 dividend of 80 cents per share. At its general meeting in March, RBI had decided not to distribute a dividend for the time being due to uncertainties.
Strobl also told shareholders that RBI was working on variations on how to get capital out of Russia but said a significant discount to the nominal value would be assumed.
($1 = 0.9168 euros)
(Reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich; Writing by Miranda Murray; editing by David Evans)
