LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), May 27 (SeeNews) – Slovenian banking group NLB, the parent company of Nova Ljubljanska Banka [LJE:NLBR], said that its consolidated after-tax profit edged up to 57.9 million euro ($64.9 million) in the first quarter of 2019, 200,000 euro more compared to the same period of 2018.
NLB Group's net operating income increased 3% year-on-year to 133.8 million euro in January-March, NLB Group said in an interim financial report late on Friday.
Net interest income rose 6% to 79.4 million euro due to loan volume growth, whereas net non-interest income fell by 2% to 54.4 million euro. Costs fell 1% to 69.0 million euro.
The ratio of non-performing loans decreased to 6.3% at the end of March, from 6.9% a year earlier.
The group's assets totalled 13.1 billion euro at the end of March, up from 12.7 billion euro a year earlier.
In Southeast Europe, the group is active in Bosnia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro.
In November 2018, Slovenia sold 59.1% of NLB's issued share capital in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, priced at 51.50 euro per share as part of the privatisation of the bank agreed between the government and the European Commission.
The IPO came in response to the commitment of Slovenia undertaken as part of the restructuring plan of NLB agreed with the European Commission under state aid procedure in 2013. Back then, the Slovenian government stepped in to recapitalise NLB and two other lenders - NKBM and Abanka, narrowly avoiding an international bailout. The same year, Slovenia committed to the European Commission to sell part of NLB within four years.
($=0.89201 euro)
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