TBC Bank's first quarter profit jumps on loan book strength

13th May 2019 08:06

(Sharecast News) - TBC Bank on Monday recorded a jump in first quarter profits on the back of loan book growth and increases to fee & commission and interest income.The bank, which is Georgia's largest retail lender, achieved a profit before tax of 136.3m Georgian laris (£38.2m) for the first three months of the year, an increase of 26% compared to the same period in 2018, as net interest income increased by 12% to 197.0m laris and net fee & commission income jumped by 20% to 41.8m laris.The FTSE 250-traded company, which conducts 99.8% of its business in Georgia and serves retail, corporate and small and medium-sized enterprise customers, said gross loans and advances to customers during the quarter rose 22.9% to 10.4bn laris from last year.Chief executive Vakhtang Butskhrikidze said the loan book growth had been supported by growth across all business segments and resulted in a market share increase of 0.6% to 38.4%, while deposits increased by 20.4%, expanding TBC's deposit market share by 1.5% to 40.4%.Cash and cash equivalents came in at 927.8m laris at 31 March, down from 1.2bn laris at the same point the year before.This decrease followed the business' acquisition of a 51% stake in LLC Inspired, a leading payment platform in Uzbekistan trading under the Payme brand, as well as a 90% stake in the Georgian Allproperty.ge real estate platform."Overall, I am delighted with our first quarter financial and operating results and I feel confident that we are well-positioned to achieve sustainable growth and to deliver high returns to our shareholders. Therefore, we would like to reiterate our medium-term targets: ROE of above 20%, cost to income ratio below 35%, dividend pay-out ratio of 25-35% and loan book growth of 10-15%," said Butskhrikidze.TBC Bank's shares were down 0.59% at 1,690.00p at 0845 BST.