VIENNA (AFP) –- Austria's third-biggest bank, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich (RZB), posted a pre-tax profit of 824 million euros last year, far higher than forecast, the bank said on Friday.

This represented a 38.1-percent increase from the outcome in 2008.
In December, the bank had forecast a profit of 600 million euros (815 million dollars) for 2009. Bottom-line net profit meanwhile jumped a massive 805 percent to 433 million euros last year, compared to 48 million euros in 2008, according to the preliminary results.
“RZB's results represent a significant accomplishment when seen against the backdrop of a difficult overall economic environment -- most of the countries in the RZB Group's home market experienced recession in 2009 -- and the consequences of the financial crisis,” the bank noted in a statement.
Raiffeisen International (RI), a publicly listed unit of RZB, saw its earnings fall however.
Its bottom-line net profit in 2009 stood at 212 million euros, down 78.4 percent from 2008, the bank said in a statement.
As holding company for RZB's activities in central and eastern Europe, RI had huge exposure to many of the countries hardest hit by the global recession.
Even then, Raiffeisen Zentralbank CEO Walter Rothensteiner insisted the figures were positive. “The RZB Group managed to post a solid performance even during what had been the worst year of the crisis so far.”
“These results provide proof of the strength of our business model (and) the quality of our governance measures in crisis times,” he added.
At a press conference on Friday, the group announced a possible merger with Raiffeisen International to create a new bank holding.
The idea must still win the approval of shareholders at the next meeting in April, but a merger that would create a unified listed company would give the group better access to financial markets, said RI's CEO Herbert Stepic.
“By minimizing parallel structures, synergies could be used and the governance of the whole group could be further improved,” he noted.
Early afternoon on Friday, RI shares were at 32.96 euros, up 4.97 percent.
Final results were to be published on March 23 for Raiffeisen International and on April 13 for RZB.