Bank of Georgia ups assets 7.5% in 2011
TBILISI. Dec 22 (Interfax) - Bank of Georgia, the country's largest commercial bank, upped assets by 300 million lari (1.6569 lari/$1 on December 22), or 7.5%, to 4.3 billion lari, the bank's general director, Iraklii Gilauri said at a press conference Thursday.
The year was successful for the bank by virtually all parameters, he said.
The bank's loan portfolio climbed 17% in the year, reaching 2.7 billion lari and deposits grew almost 30% to 2.55 billion lari. The bank's net profit went up 63% year-on-year to 135 million lari.
One of the main achievements of 2011 was obtaining permission for a full listing of the bank's shares on the London Stock Exchange, Gilauri said. "This will enable us to expand our investor base, increase share liquidity and capitalization," he said.
Bank of Georgia raised around $100 million from international financial institutes in 2011, which was spent on developing the bank and providing funding to priority projects, he said.
"We plan to raise the same volume of additional financial resources in 2012," Gilauri said, adding that loan agreements will be signed very soon with two European banks for $40 million.
Bank of Georgia shareholders are Bank of New York (Nominees) Limited (90.99%), East Capital Financial Institutions II AB - 4.36% and some individual shareholders.
