Big third quarter for renamed Bank of Georgia

The freshly-renamed BGEO Group saw third quarter profit lift to GEL80.9m (£22.4m), off revenue growth of 39.4% in the banking division.

Earnings per share rose to GEL2.04 (£0.56), a 17.2% increase on the same period last year. The company's book value per share reached GEL 43.60, with total assets also rising 45.8% to GEL 9.94bn.

BGEO's chief executive officer, Irakli Gilauri, attributed much of the growth to the group's core banking activities.

"Within our Banking Business, revenue growth was 39.4% year on year, and 4.1% quarter on quarter. This reflected strong growth in net interest income, up 43.6% y-o-y, as a result of a 37.7% increase in customer lending over the last 12 months, as well as the acquisition and full integration of Privatbank," he said.

"In addition, net fee and commission income grew by 11.7%, driven by a 28.9% increase in Retail Banking net fee and commission income, which largely reflects the continuing success of the Bank's Express strategy."

Gilauri was also optimistic about Georgia's prospects, saying that the the country had performed well despite what he described as "macroeconomic and currency pressures" in many of Georgia's trading partners.

"Much of the currency volatility earlier in the year has now significantly reduced and the Lari has seen a period of generally greater stability over the last two quarters," he said.

"As a result we believe that, in the absence of any major external shocks, the Lari will remain broadly stable at its current levels."