UPDATE 1-Turkish Garanti sees '08 profit growth of 30-35 pct

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ISTANBUL, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Garanti Bank's GARAN.IS CEO Ergun Ozen said on Saturday the Turkish bank expected profit growth of 30-35 percent in 2008, excluding one-off items, on the back of strong loan growth.

Ozen told a news conference that Garanti, Turkey's second-largest bank by market capitalisation, expected to see Turkish lira loan growth of 30 percent this year and an increase in foreign exchange lending of 40 percent.

"We made our business plan with our feet very much on the ground and taking into account the problems abroad. So despite the continuing problems abroad, we stand by our targets," he said.

After the market closed on Friday, the bank posted a 107.6 percent rise in 2007 net profit to 2.422 billion Turkish lira ($2.03 billion), boosted by strong lending and one-off items including the sale of an insurance business.

Stripping out the impact of asset sales after tax, net profit was 1.586 billion lira.

Garanti, which is owned by Turkey's Sahenk family and a unit of General Electric (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), saw total loans rise 33 percent to 38.7 billion lira in 2007.

Deputy General Manager Tolga Egemen said turbulence in global credit markets could bring an increase in borrowing costs for Turkish banks, which he said had some $10 billion in syndicated loans maturing this year.

"Garanti has $600 million and 700 million euros (maturing). Although the costs will go up a bit, we will be able to renew them. But the real problem could be in securitisation," he said, adding that Turkish banks were not very dependent on foreign borrowing.