The consolidated after-tax profit of Raiffeissen Bank-Holding AG, a unit of Raiffeissen central Bank Austria, rose 43.1% to 625.7 mln euros on September 30.

Pre-tax profit rose 46.5% to 953.4 mln euros, while after tax profit rose 44.6% to 736.6 mln euros.

In Q3 consolidated profit is in the amount of 224 mln euros. Excluding last year's sales of assets, this is the best quarter result so far – consolidated profit exceeds Q2 by 16 mln euros, and by 51% (76 mln euros) the respective period a year ago.

ROE (after taxes) topped 20% and stood at 21.2%, which is just 0.2% below 2006 figures.

Jan – Sept profit per share rose by 0.62 euro to 4.40 euro.

At the end of September consolidated assets are in the amount of 67.5 bln euros, which 21% up from same period in 2006. the figures rose nearly 8% in Q3, which is the fastest growth pace on a three-month basis.

On September 30 the bank has 3,023 branches. Raiffeissen International opened 175 new offices during the first nine months of the year.

The number of employees grew 8.1% to 57,019 year-to-date.