20th Aug 2015 06:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - Bank of Georgia Holdings PLC, the London-listed holding company of Georgia?s leading bank JSC Bank of Georgia and its subsidiaries, on Thursday reported higher pretax profit in the second quarter, driven by its banking and investment businesses.
In a statement, the company said it made a GEL83.7 million pretax profit in the three months to the end of June, compared with GEL59.0 million in the corresponding quarter the prior year.
The group's performance in the second quarter helped the company's pretax profit in the first half of 2015 to increase to GEL156.9 million from GEL122.8 million in the corresponding half the prior year.
Earnings per share in the first half were equivalent to about GBP0.98, with EPS of GEL3.47 up 10% year-on-year.
"I am pleased to report another set of solid half-year results that reflect the strong performance of our banking operations and the increasing impact from our diversified non-banking businesses in which we have made a number of opportunistic investments over the last few years," Chief Executive Irakli Gilauri said in a statement.
"This performance was driven by strong levels of balance sheet growth, partly reflecting the acquisition and rapid integration of Privatbank Georgia and the devaluation of the lari, particularly during the first quarter, as well as positive operating leverage of 19.5 percentage points in the Banking Business. Asset quality remained robust during the first six months of the year despite the impact of the lari devaluation," Gilauri said, referring to the Georgian currency.
Gilauri said the group believes it is in a good position for a strong performance in the second half and beyond.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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