Riga, Latvia, 2016-05-27 11:51 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The results of Q1 evidence stable development of the bank and allow predicting that the objectives set for 2016 will be achieved. All the bank’s major performance indicators remain high, including capital adequacy and liquidity ratios.
An ordinary meeting of the bank's shareholders was held on 7 April 2016. At the meeting, the bank’s annual report and consolidated annual report for 2015 were approved. The meeting of shareholders approved the board’s proposal on distribution of profit for 2015, according to which the amount of EUR 68.8 million was paid in the form of dividends, and the dividends per one share of the bank amounted to EUR 1.95.
Continuing the bond issue programme, at the beginning of 2016, we performed two more coupon bond issues, their total size amounting to USD 75 000 000 and EUR 20 000 000 at face value. During the initial placement, the bonds were acquired by more than 190 investors. The issues were performed under the Fifth Bond Offer Programme, and the bonds are admitted to the regulated market – NASDAQ Riga list of debt securities.
The bank actively continued issuing commercial loans. In Q1 2016, as opposed to Q1 2015, the average amount of the commercial loan portfolio increased by 21% and the total amount of the commercial loan portfolio reached EUR 462.6 million at the end of the quarter. In the first quarter of 2016, the bank also signed several loan agreements for the total amount of EUR 49.9 million, mostly with Latvian enterprises.
Expanding to new regions and willing to build much closer relationships with the business partners, in the reporting period, ABLV Group company ABLV Advisory Services, SIA opened a representative office in the world financial power – the United States of America. The representative office in New York will work on establishing mutually beneficial international business contacts for the companies of ABLV Group and on studying the US regulatory environment. Currently, ABLV Group is represented in 10 foreign countries – it has 12 representative offices in different cities of the world and the subsidiary bank in Luxembourg ABLV Bank Luxembourg, S.A.
Bank’s major financial indicators for Q1 2016
- The bank’s profit in Q1 2016 amounted to EUR 21.5 million, whereas in Q1 2015 it equalled EUR 20.1 million.
- The bank’s operating income totalled EUR 35.6 million. Compared with Q1 2015, operating income has increased by 4.7%.
- As at 31 March 2016, deposits with the bank amounted to EUR 3.56 billion.
- The amount of issued debt securities reached EUR 562.6 million.
- As at 31 March 2016, the amount of the bank’s assets totalled EUR 4.68 billion.
- The bank’s loan portfolio equalled EUR 899.8 million, as at the end of March.
- The bank’s capital and reserves amounted to EUR 243.8 million.
- As at 31 March 2016, the bank’s capital adequacy ratio was 16.31%, whereas liquidity equalled 81.61%.
- ROE reached 30.83%, and ROA – 1.80%, as at 31 March 2016.
The bank continued investing in securities. The total amount of the securities portfolio was equal to EUR 2.51 billion, as at 31 March 2016. The bank’s securities portfolio is mostly composed of fixed-income debt securities. In the reporting period, annual yield of the securities portfolio amounted to 3.5%.
The overall situation on financial markets and in our target regions, as well as growing requirements of different supervisory institutions do not allow to hope for the business development this year to be as rapid as in previous years, but since our business model is efficient and risk management – strong and elaborate, we can forecast the results to be similar to those in 2015. In 2016, we plan to retain net fee income and profit at the level of the previous year. We plan to grant new commercial loans for financing large business projects. Net profit in 2016 is planned to be approximately the same as that in 2015.
Report for Q1 2016 and reports of the Council and the Board are available at the bank’s website www.ablv.com .
ABLV Bank, AS is the largest independent private bank in Latvia. The bank’s major shareholders — Oļegs Fiļs, Ernests Bernis and Nika Berne – directly and indirectly hold 86.25% of the bank's voting share capital. ABLV Group includes ABLV Bank, AS; ABLV Bank Luxembourg, S.A.; ABLV Capital Markets, IBAS; ABLV Asset Management, IPAS; Pillar Holding Company, KS; ABLV Consulting Services, AS; ABLV Corporate Services, SIA; New Hanza City, SIA, and other companies. ABLV Group has representative offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Kiev, Odessa, Minsk, Almaty, Baku, Tashkent, Hong Kong, Limassol, and New York.
Ilmārs Jargans Head of Public Relations Department ABLV Bank, AS Tel.: +371 6777 5296 e-mail: ilmars.jargans@ablv.com
