Bad loans drag bank's profits down 58 per cent

Private equity's favourite bank, Bank of Scotland International, insists it's sticking around, despite a 58 per cent plunge in its profits last year.

Accounts filed with the Companies Office show the bank made a profit of A$120.7 million ($149.8 million) in the year to December - well down from A$286.7 million the previous year.

The main cause appears to be a huge increase in bad loans, from A$47.3 million in 2007, to A$306 million last year.

The bank, which has offices in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong, is owned by HBOS Australia, which was taken over by the Lloyds Banking Group in January.

It has specialised in the risky end of the corporate market, including leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, and property and project finance.

Finance companies it is known to have loaned money to include Geneva and Strategic Finance, and buyouts it is believed to have been involved in include REDgroup (Whitcoulls and Borders), Noel Leeming, Qualcare, Tegel, MediaWorks, Ezibuy, Aperio, and Eldercare.

Commentators have questioned whether Lloyds will want to remain in the private-equity business.

BOS International also has a big exposure to the construction and property sector, which accounts for more than a third of its loans.

In the first two months of this year alone, one of its customers was placed in receivership, and another was subject to a trading halt.

At the end of February, the bank said it was satisfied with its 2008 provisions.

Three months later, it appointed receivers to two companies developing the first stage of New Zealand's most ambitious real estate project - Queenstown's $1 billion Kawarau Falls Station development.