OREANDA-NEWS. In Q1 2015, ABLV Bank, AS gained the profit of EUR 20.1 million. Other major performance indicators of the bank remained high as well. This allows expecting that we will achieve the financial and growth objectives set for 2015. 

Financial indicators of Q1 2015:

  • The bank’s profit in Q1 2015 amounted to EUR 20.1 million. Whereas in Q1 2014 it equalled EUR 16.6 million.
  • The bank’s operating income before allowances for credit losses totalled EUR 34.8 million. Compared with Q1 2014, operating income has increased by 17.2%.
  • The bank’s amount of deposits and assets continued to grow. Since the beginning of 2015, the amount of deposits has increased by EUR 246.3 million, i.e., 7.2%, reaching EUR 3.65 billion.
  • The amount of issued debt securities reached EUR 539.6 million.
  • As at 31 March 2015, the amount of the bank’s assets totalled EUR 4.61 billion. Since the beginning of the year, the amount of assets has grown by 10.7%, the total assets increasing by EUR 444.2 million.
  • The bank’s loan portfolio equalled EUR 826.6 million, as at the end of March.
  • The bank’s capital and reserves amounted to EUR 221.8 million.
  • As at 31 March 2015, the bank’s capital adequacy ratio was 17.57%, whereas liquidity equalled 74.61%.
  • ROE reached 36.05%, and ROA – 1.78%, as at 31 March 2015.

Continuing the bond issue programme, at the beginning of 2015 we performed two more coupon bond issues, their total size amounting to USD 75 000 000 and EUR 20 000 000 at face value. 87 and 40 investors respectively took part in acquisition of the bonds. The issues were performed under the Fourth Bond Offer Programme, and the bonds are admitted to the regulated market – Nasdaq Riga Baltic list of debt securities; as at the end of Q1 2015, the list included 19 bond issues performed by us.

On 31 March, the ordinary meeting of the bank’s shareholders made the decision to pay EUR 58.4 million out of the profit for 2014 in the form of dividends. The payment per share amounted to EUR 1.79. Payment of the dividends will allow the bank’s shareholders to re-invest the profit derived from dividends in the bank’s further growth by acquiring the bank’s newly issued shares, and therefore the decision on increasing ABLV Bank, AS share capital by issuing 2 385 000 new registered voting shares was made as well. According to the approved terms of share capital increase, the sale price of one share was set to be EUR 13.85, and following the issue, the bank’s equity was increased by EUR 33.0 million, thus ensuring the funds required for implementation of the bank’s further development plans.

In the reporting period, we have implemented several new products and services for the convenience of our customers. Those include expanded investment opportunities — new open-end mutual fund managed by ABLV Asset Management, IPAS – ABLV Multi-Asset Total Return USD Fund, improved support under corporate events, cargo ship financing, and payments in five new currencies: THB (Thai baht), TRY (Turkish lira), HKD (Hong Kong dollar), AMD (Armenian dram), and GEL (Georgian lari).

The bank continued investing in securities. The total amount of the securities portfolio was equal to EUR 2.60 billion, as at 31 March 2015. The bank’s securities portfolio is mostly composed of fixed-income debt securities, and 75.9% of the portfolio is constituted by securities having credit rating AA- and higher. In terms of the major countries, securities are allocated as follows: USA – 32.5%, Germany – 12.5%, Canada – 9.3%, Russia – 9%, Sweden – 8.6%, Latvia – 8.1%, Netherlands – 3.2%, Denmark – 1.6%, and Norway – 1.6%. Whereas 4.6% is constituted by securities issued by international institutions – the European Commission, EBRD, etc. In the reporting period, annual yield of the securities portfolio amounted to 3.0%.

As announced earlier, in 2015, we plan to retain net fee income and profit at the level of the previous year. Average increase of deposits is planned to amount to 10%, and thus the total amount of deposits might exceed EUR 4 billion by the end of 2015. We plan granting new commercial loans for financing large business projects, and their amount will be about EUR 130 million. Net profit in 2015 is planned to be approximately the same as in 2014.