Raiffeisen still haunted by troubled east Raiffeisen Bank International, the quoted central and eastern European banking group controlled by Austria's co-operative banks, doubled first quarter net profits to €541m year on year. However, analysts warned the result was flattered by one-offs and it remained far too soon to call time on problems in the troubled economies of the region - or on the possibility the group might still have to launch a rights issue, in spite of improved capital ratios. Earnings were flattered by a €159m pre-tax one-off gain from the sale of securities held in the bank's treasury, and €113m pre-tax from buying back hybrid bonds trading below their nominal value. Moreover, the group's net interest margin slipped by 0.25 percentage points year on year to 2.37 per cent, reflecting still fragile conditions in some central and eastern European countries, notably Romania, where fees on lending and guarantees fell sharply. Just in central Europe, the interest margin dropped from 3.36 per cent to 2.82 per cent per cent year on year. The ratio of non-performing loans edged up to 8.9 per cent from 8.65 per cent the previous year. Loan growth was almost static, except in Russia. Excluding the €272m non-recurring items the result was far less impressive. Operating trends are still unconvincing," said Dirk Becker of Kepler Capital Markets, in a note to investors. Despite the challenging environment, we were able to maintain the previous year's success with our first-quarter results. Even deducting the one-off effects, we can be very satisfied with the profit we have achieved," said Herbert Stepic, chief executive. The one-offs were prompted by the need to attain the minimum capital standards required for the end of next month by the European Banking Authority in its stress tests. RBI said that the measures taken, and others still in the works, meant the Raiffeisen Zentralbank parent company, of which RBI is the main component, would achieve a core tier one ratio - a measure of capital strength - of 9.3 per cent, based on EBA definitions.