LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), September 4 (SeeNews) – Slovenia’s third-largest bank Abanka said on Wednesday its consolidated net profit fell to 26.2 million euro ($28.7 million) in the first half of 2019 from 40.4 million euro in the like period of last year.
Abanka’s consolidated net interest income slightly increased to 29.8 million euro from 29.5 million euro, while net fee and commission income rose to 20.2 million euro from 18.5 million euro, the bank said in an interim financial statement filed with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
The bank's total assets increased to 3.8 billion euro at the end of June from 3.7 billion euro a year earlier.
“The bank has high liquidity and a strong capital base, which is also reflected in the liquidity and capital ratios. As at the reporting date, Abanka’s total capital ratio stood at 23.2%,” the lender noted.
In the first six months of 2019, the Abanka Group continued to reduce its non-performing loan ratio, which decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 4.0% as at the reporting date.
Slovenia’s sovereign holding company, SDH, said in June that it has signed an agreement with the second biggest lender in the country, Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (NKBM), for the sale of 100% of Abanka for a total consideration of 511 million euro, with the completion of the acquisition subject to regulatory and other necessary approvals.
The value of the agreement includes a dividend in the amount of 67 million euro which was paid out to the seller in May, prior to the signing of the agreement, SDH, acting on behalf of the Slovenian government, said at the time.
NKBM is owned by investment funds affiliated with and managed by Apollo Global Management (80%) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (20%).
A merger between Abanka and NKBM would create a bank that will hold around 22.5% market share. Slovenia's largest bank, Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), holds a market stake of around 23%.
($ = 0.91295 euro)