Spain's blue chip bank Banco Santander reported a 58.8 per cent drop in earnings for 2012 as the financial institution continues to struggle with the country's crisis and attempts to rebuild its balance sheet under the restructuring process for the Spanish banking structure.

Attributable profit to the group settled in at €2.205bn compared to 2011's €5.351bn. Analysts had expected a 26.9% drop to €3.909bn, according to the consensus compiled by Factset. EPS (earnings per share) fell 52.5% to €0.23, compared to the prior year's €0.60.

Santander does note that ordinary profit (before real estate provisions net of capital gains) would have fallen by only 25.2% to €5.251bn, leaving its BPA for last year at €0.54.

The financial giant also pointed out that net interest income rose 3.6% to €30.147bn, with pre-provision profit (net operating income) advancing 1.6% to €23.559bn.

MG

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