ALPBACH, Austria, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Emerging Europe's No. 2 lender, Austria's Raiffeisen International may not get back all the funds it has lent in Ukraine, where it could see defaults reach as much as 10 percent, the bank's parent company RZB said.
Asked how much money Raiffeisen will get back from the amount it invested in Ukraine, Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB) Chief Executive Walter Rothensteiner said: "From the 5 billion euros ($7.18 billion) invested, we should get 4.5 billion euros back."
He did not give a time frame or specify whether this would mean a 500 million euro writedown. He added that he expects defaults on around 10 percent of the credit Raiffeisen has lent in Ukraine.
Rothensteiner reiterated it would be unthinkable for Raiffeisen International to pull out of shakier emerging European markets such as Ukraine or Romania.
RZB, which got 1.75 billion euros in capital from the Austrian government's banking package in April, reported a 47 percent drop in first-half pretax profit on Monday as bad debt provisions soared. (Reporting by Eva Komarek, Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Rupert Winchester)