Moldovan bank Maib net profit up 10% in 2023

The performance was mainly driven by growth in its retail loan portfolio, which increased by an annual 16% to 8.5 billion lei following its recovery in the second half of the year, Maib said in a press release on Thursday.

“Within an environment filled with economic uncertainty, Maib’s strong and resilient operational framework, combined with its talented team, managed to increase assets, grow market share across the board, pay a dividend and generate a net profit,” CEO Giorgi Shagidze said.

The lender’s net interest income was virtually unchanged at 2.181 billion lei in 2023, while its net fee and commission income rose by 11.5% on the year to 446.3 million lei, it said in a financial report published on Thursday.

Maib’s gross loan portfolio reached 23.7 billion lei at end-2023, up 4.4% on the year. Retail loans represented 36%, while corporate loans and credits to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had shares of 39% and 25%, respectively.

The bank’s non-performing loans (NPL) ratio stood at 2.7% by the end of 2023, decreasing by 0.1 percentage points (pp) year-on-year.

Total deposits jumped by an annual 24.4% reaching some 39 billion lei at the end of 2023. Of these, retail deposits constituted 60%, while SME and corporate deposits sliced shares of 20% each.

As of the end of 2023, Maib held market shares of 37.4% for loans and 34.3% for deposits.

Total assets rose 21% on the year, reaching 52.3 billion lei at the end of 2023, while total liabilities stood at 44.5 billion lei after growing by 22%.

In September 2023, Maib launched its full digital onboarding feature, enhancing the availability of its services. A share of 66% of retail deposits originated online, while 56% of retail loans originated online.

Maib is pursuing its strategic objective of listing on an international stock exchange. However, specific aspects of Moldovan legislation do not make such a listing feasible, with the lender temporarily halting its efforts pending clarity on legislative changes.

Maib is 41% owned by HEIM Partners, a consortium of investors comprising the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Baltic asset management group Invalda and Horizon Capital, a private equity fund focused on emerging markets in Europe.

(1 euro=19.1665 Moldovan lei)