VTB first quarter profit soars 71% to 26 bln rbls

Russia's VTB group, which includes the country's second largest VTB bank, saw first quarter net profits jump 70.6 percent year-on-year to 26.1 billion rubles ($932 million) to IFRS, the group said on Monday. VTB's return on equity reached 17.7 percent compared to 11.9 percent the previous year, while operating income before provisions rose 25.5 percent to 72.9 billion rubles, VTB said in a statement. The loan portfolio expanded 0.13 percent to 3.063 trillion rubles, while the non-performing loan ratio shrank to 8.2 percent of total gross loans compared to 8.6 percent at the end of 2010. The volume of retail loans amounted to 555.3 billion rubles as of March 31, down from 541.5 billion rublesat the end of 2010, while the volume of corporate loans stood at 2.508 trillion rubles compared to 2.518 trillion rubles at the beginning of the year.