OREANDA-NEWS. 01 July 2008. Despite the unstable financial market Absolut Bank has again demonstrated high growth rates on all its directions of business, thus, beating most benchmarks and staying ahead of market. According to its Q1 financial statements prepared under IAS, Absolut Bank’s loan portfolio exceeded a benchmark of 100 bl rubles and reached 104.1 bl rubles – a 12.7% increase since January 1st.

In particular, the volume of corporate loans increased by 4 bl rubles to 70.4 bl rubles compared to the previous quarter. The portfolio of loans made to individuals grew by 24%, while the average growth rate in the market was 7.7%. Absolut Bank’s volume of mortgage lending increased by 20% to 22.1 bl rubles, the average Russian rate of mortgage lending growth being 13,2%. Auto and plastic card lending showed the highest growth rates – 28% each of them – to 7.8 and 736 bl rubles respectively. The SME loan portfolio grew by 17% and almost reached 3.8 bl rubles. The number of deposit holders increased by 7% to 22.7 thousand. Under the banks’ long-term development strategy, the share of retailing increased from 29 to 32%.

The bank’s profits grew by 16% compared to the same period of the previous year and amounted to 242 ml rubles. Besides, the net interest gains after the creation of provisions for loan impairment tripled - from 429 ml to 1.28 bl rubles.

Nikolay Sidorov, chairman of the board of Absolut Bank, pointed out that “in the first quarter the Bank considerably increased its equity. It grew by 135% to 17.4 bl rubles. Thus we ensured the base for bigger financing volumes and high growth rates for our business in future”.