BLBG: RBS Posts First Profit Since 2007 as Bad Loans Tumble (Update1)
By Andrew MacAskill and Jon Menon
Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, swung into profit for the first time since 2007 as impairments plunged.
Net income was 9 million pounds ($14 million) in the first six months of the year, compared with a loss of 1.04 billion pounds a year earlier, the Edinburgh-based bank said in a statement. That beat the 47 million pound loss that was the median estimate of six analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
“The rebuilding of RBS is a marathon and not a sprint,” Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester said in the statement. “There is, of course, plenty left to do.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew MacAskill in London at amacaskill@bloomberg.net; Jon Menon in London at jmenon1@bloomberg.net
