18th Nov 2020 11:05
(Alliance News) - Georgian bank TBC Bank Group PLC on Wednesday said it saw its profit widen in the third quarter of the year following the start of an economic recovery from Covid-19 in Georgia.
TBC said pretax profit for the third quarter ended September 30 stood at GEL164.5 million, or GBP37.5 million, widening 16% from GEL142.3 million a year prior.
Net interest income was up 9.4% to GEL211.8 million from GEL193.6 million year-on-year.
Common equity tier one ratio was 9.9% compared to 11.9% a year before.
Chief Executive Vakhtang Butskhrikidze noted the recovery of the Georgian economy.
"The economy continued to recover in the third quarter of the year with GDP declining by only 3.8% year-on-year during the quarter, compared with a 12.3% year-on-year drop in the second quarter. The recovery was particularly visible in September, with GDP decreasing only by 0.7%," he said.
"Unfortunately, the second wave of the pandemic, which started at the beginning of September, together with the regional conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, is putting downward pressure on the economic recovery," Butskhrikidze added.
In the medium term, TBC is committed to its guidance of a return on equity above 20%, a cost to income ratio below 35%, a dividend pay-out ratio of between 25% and 35% and loan book growth of around 10% to 15%.
TBC said: "In the post-Covid-19 reality, when the need for remote solutions has soared, our strong focus on digitalization has become ever more relevant. Thus, we remain committed to our vision of making people's life easier by creating customer centric, digital financial solutions, integrated with other products and services used by our clients on a daily basis. In doing so, we are leveraging our strong digital capabilities and advanced data analytics."
TBC shares were up 6.6% at 1,320.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
By Greg Roxburgh; [email protected]
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