Bank of Georgia finds market hard to please

Shares in Bank of Georgia Holdings have been in the doghouse since the election upset in Georgia at the beginning of October and Thursday's third quarter figures did little to reverse the trend, despite a solid increase in profits.

Revenue in the first nine months of 2012 rose 16.2% to 370.0m lari (GEL) from GEL.318.3m in the corresponding period of 2011.

Profit before tax from continuing operations of GEL.158.7m were up by GEL.29.8m, or 23.1%.

Post-tax profit from continuing operations rose 16.8% to GEL.132.7m from GEL.113.6m the year before, leading to a 17.1% increase in basic earnings per share to GEL.3.94 from GEL.3.36 a year earlier.

"Despite the combination of a seasonally quiet quarter and the pre-election period, we experienced growing demand for credit, as reflected in the 4.8% q-o-q [quarter-on-quarter] growth of our loan book, and have further improved our efficiency by bringing the Cost to Income ratio down by a further 1.1 percentage points to 44.4%," said Irakli Gilauri, Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Georgia Holdings.

"Following the parliamentary elections in early October, Georgia is currently in the process of what has been a smooth transition to a new government. This has not changed the business priorities and strategies of Bank of Georgia and business trends in October have been consistent with our year-to-date performance," Gilauri added.

JH