10 May 2018 15:57

Bank of Georgia assets rise 4.2% in Q1, net profit drops 36.8%

TBILISI. May 10 (Interfax) - Assets at Bank of Georgia, the republic's biggest commercial bank, rose by 4.2% or 494.2 million lari to 12.392 billion lari ($5.059 billion) in Q1 2018, Bank of Georgia reported.

Bank of Georgia accounted for 36.2% of all assets in Georgia's banking sector as of the end of March, up from 34.4% at the end of 2017 and 33% a year earlier.

In the 12 months ending on March 31, Bank of Georgia assets increased 26.3%.

The loan portfolio grew 2.3% to 7.403 billion lari as of April 1. Loan loss reserves totaled 341.4 million lari, 4.6% of the loan portfolio. Liabilities were up 4.5% to 11.073 billion lari, including a 3.6% increase in client deposits to 6.941 billion lari.

Capital declined 1.5% to 1.319 billion lari.

Net profit in Q1 2018 came to 74.8 million lari, 36.8% less than in Q1 2017.

Bank of Georgia's principal shareholder with 79.62% of shares is JSC BGEO Group, a company formed in May 2015 in the process of the bank's reorganization by its shareholder, Bank of Georgia Holdings Plc. JSC Georgia Capital, created in July 2017 under BGEO Group's new strategy aimed at separating the group's banking and investment business, has 19.89% of shares.

The official exchange rate on May 10 was 2.4495 lari/$1.