Austrian RBI's Q2 profit more than triples

VIENNA (Reuters) -Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), one of the banks in Europe most exposed to Russia, on Monday said its second-quarter profit more than tripled after booking a gain from the sale of its Bulgarian subsidiary.

The bank's consolidated profit rose to 1.27 billion euros ($1.30 billion) from 396 million in the same period last year, it said, adding that first-half results included a 453 million gain from the sale of RBI's Bulgarian unit.

RBI has been studying strategic options for its Russian business, including a possible withdrawal, following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. In May, it said it has received unsolicited indications of interest for its Russian operations.

"All options relating to Russia and Belarus remain on the table," RBI, which is scheduled to release full second-quarter results on Aug. 2, said.

RBI said it now expects net interest income of between 4.3 billion and 4.7 billion euros and net fee and commission income of at least 2.7 billion in 2022.

It previously said it expected net interest income to grow by a high single-digit percentage and net fee and commission income by a mid single-digit percentage.

($1 = 0.9751 euros)

(Reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Chris Reese and Tomasz Janowski)