OREANDA-NEWS. On 31 January 2008 Raiffeisen Bank Aval (BAVL) disclosed its 2007 results. BAVL's assets grew by 60.1% in 2007 (44.2% in 2006) and reached USD 8.8bn. This growth is lower than that of the banking industry for the same period (75.9%). BAVL's equity increased by 62.7% in 2007 (64.2% growth in the industry). BAVL finished 2007 with net income of USD 116.3mn, which is 73.8% more than in 2006 (54.3% growth in the banking industry). This yields 2007 expected ROE of 13.9% (ROE was 13.6% in 2006), which is slightly higher than in the banking industry as a whole (12.5%).

BAVL’s growth in assets slightly outperformed our forecast (USD 8.1bn). The bank's net income was also slightly more than we expected in our research report (USD 111.1mn). Therefore, we maintain our Hold recommendation with stable outlook.