Santander profit sinks 93% on property provisions

MADRID (MarketWatch) 

Banco Santander SA's second-quarter profit sharply undershot expectations Thursday as the Spanish banking giant set aside almost all of its earnings as provisions against real-estate losses in its home market

The bank , the largest in the euro zone by market value, said net profit plunged almost 93% to 100 million euros ($121.37 million) in the quarter, compared with €1.39 billion a year earlier That was significantly below a Dow Jones Newswires survey of eight analyst estimates which had forecast net profit at €1.4 billion
Santander is weathering a deepening economic slump in crisis-struck Spain, where banks are posting meager profit after the government forced them to boost buffers against losses on their vast holdings of toxic real-estate and because demand for loans has withered
The giant lender is compensating for weakness in its home markets with healthy growth in booming Mexico and Brazil
It set aside €1.304 billion to cover losses on its Spanish real-estate exposure in the second quarter, on top of €1.6 billion in the fourth quarter last year, giving it 70% of the amount demanded by the Spanish government.
Chairman Emilio Botin said the move will allow the bank put real-estate write-offs behind it by the end of the year
Income for Santander's main lending activity rose 6.3% to €7.68 billion in the quarter, broadly in line with market expectations of €7.7 billion
Bank stocks tumbled in the months before Spain asked for €100 billion in aid to recapitalize its most troubled banks and have continued to fall in recent weeks on investor concerns that the country could need a full-scale bailout