Financial services group SNS Reaal more than doubled its net profit in the first six months of this year – from €53m a year ago to €115m.

Net profit would have been much higher but was depressed by a €131m write-off on the group’s property finance activities.
SNS had been planning to repay €700m in state aid by the end of June, but is instead prioritising boosting its capital buffers and solving its real estate problems. The bank is currently looking at various options to ‘enhance’ its financial position.
‘We are currently exploring a broad range of measures to enhance and simplify our capital base as well as strategic restructuring scenarios, such as the sale of parts of our business,’ CEO Ronald Latenstein said in a statement. ‘We expect to give an update later this year. For the remainder of 2012, the outlook remains very challenging.’
In July, the Financieele Dagblad said SNS had brought in Goldman Sachs to look into various scenarios for restoring its financial health. This could include selling the Reaal and Zwitserleven insurance arms, the paper said, quoting ‘various sources’.