November 30 (SeeNews) - Slovenian banking group NLB, parent company of lender Nova Ljubljanska Banka [LJE:NLBR], said on Friday that its consolidated profit after taxes fell by an annual 14% to 158.3 million euro ($179.8 million) in the January-September period of 2018.
The company's net operating income edged up 1% year-on-year to 369 million euro in the first nine months of the year, NLB Group said in an interim financial statement.
Net interest income added 1% to 231.9 million euro, while net non-interest income remained flattish at 137.1 million euro.
The company's costs increased by 1% to 210.4 million euro.
Impairments and provisions halved to 19 million euro in the review period from 37.3 million euro the year before.
The group's assets totalled 12.78 billion euro at the end of September, up from 12.24 billion euro a year earlier.
In Southeast Europe, the group is active in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro.
Earlier this month, Slovenia sold 59.1% of NLB's issued share capital in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, priced at 51.50 euro per share as part of the privatisation of the bank agreed between the government and the European Commission.
The IPO came in response to the commitment of Slovenia undertaken as part of the restructuring plan of NLB agreed with the European Commission under state aid procedure in 2013. Back then, the Slovenian government stepped in to recapitalise NLB and two other lenders - NKBM and Abanka, narrowly avoiding an international bailout. The same year, Slovenia committed to the European Commission to sell part of NLB within four years.
($ = 0.8803 euro)
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