LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), June 19 (SeeNews) – Slovenian lender Abanka said on Wednesday its consolidated net profit fell to 18.6 million euro ($20.8 million) in the first quarter of 2019 from 25.5 million euro in the like period a year earlier.
Abanka’s consolidated net interest income increased 1.5% on the year to 15.1 million euro in the January-March period, while net fee and commission income rose 10.2% to 10.3 million euro, the bank said in a financial statement filed with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
The bank's total assets increased to 3.81 billion euro at the end of 2018 from 3.73 billion euro a year earlier.
In the first three months of 2019, the Abanka Group continued to actively reduce the non-performing loans. Its share of NPLs decreased by 0.7 percentage points to 3.9% at the end of March.
A final decision on the privatisation of Abanka, Slovenia's third largest bank, is expected today.
U.S. investment fund Apollo and Hungarian bank OTP are the only two candidate buyers for the lender to file biding bids, local media reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources.
SDH invited in October expressions of interest for the sale of 100% shareholding interest in Abanka. In 2013, the Slovenian government had to step in and recapitalise Abanka with 348 million euro whilst also seizing control of the bank. In October 2015, Abanka and its state-owned peer Banka Celje merged and Banka Celje ceased to exist as an independent legal entity.
($ = 0.8923 euro)