From July to September, the lender, 99% owned by the government after being recapitalised with almost €1.7bn in taxpayers’ money since 2014, generated €6.9m in net earnings, compared with a loss of €274.7m in the respective three-months period of 2015, it said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. In the nine months to September, it booked €42m in provisions compared with €372.2m a year before.

The bank saw its non-performing loans rise in September to 59.8% from 59.3% in June as a portion of its total loan portfolio, or by €50.6m to almost €7.4bn, the bank said. In December, the non-performing loans ratio of the bank was also 59.3%.

“We opted to divert the largest portion of our organic profits in the third quarter towards strengthening provisions while maintaining a (core equity tier 1) capital ratio of 16.5%,” the bank’s chief executive officer Nicholas Hadjiyiannis was quoted as saying. “In the time remaining until year end, we continue our (loan) restructuring efforts expecting to have restructured more than €1.2bn in loans in a year”.

Hadjiyiannis added that the bank, which is planning a listing on the Cyprus Stock Exchange and an issue of new shares in order to attract private investors, reduced its 90 days-past-due loans by more than €1bn.

“Our aim is to maintain the Coop’s positive performance and complete a plethora of projects in progress to improve performance,” he said. “Staying this course allows us to decisively go ahead with creating a modern organisation, making it attractive and useful for the country and the economy”.

Source: Cyprus Mail