Unistream's IFRS pretax profit slumps to 8.8 mln rubles in 9M
MOSCOW. Dec 11 (Interfax) - Unistream Bank saw its pretax profit to International Financial Reporting Standards plunge from 71 million rubles in January 2011 to 8.8 million in the same nine months of 2012, reports the Aurora Russia fund, which owns 26% of the bank.
Weak profit was mainly the result of increased competition, where players are focusing first and foremost on winning a share of the market and not on transaction revenue, the report said.
The volume of money transfers in the nine months grew 12% to 109.5 billion rubles, and gross revenue climbed 7% to 1.79 billion rubles. Revenue per transaction fell to 1.64% from 1.72% in the previous year.
The value of Aurora Russia's stake in Unistream fell to 13.6 million pounds on September 30 from 16.3 million pounds on March 31, 2012. The drop in value is partially due to ruble depreciation against the pound and to lower than forecast profit, the report says.
Unistream Bank operates the Unistream money transfer system. The bank was ranked number 504 by asset value in the Interfax-100 review of Russia's banks in January-September 2012. The Aurora Russia report says Unistream occupies 15% of the market for money transfers abroad and 10.8% of the internal money transfers market.