LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), August 5 (SeeNews) – Slovenia's SKB Group, part of French banking group Societe Generale, said on Monday it booked a consolidated net profit of 34.2 million euro ($38.2 million) in the first half of 2019, up 40% year-on-year.
The profit growth was achieved by improved business performance, reflected in a rise of 18% in gross operating income to 31.3 million euro, and high reversal of provisions for non-performing exposures, SKB said in a Ljubljana bourse filing.
"SKB Group enjoys the reputation of a solid and safe financial institution, it has the trust of its clients and will continue to strive to build good relations with them and provide them with quality financial services. For the past 18 years, this has been done under the auspices of Societe Generale Group, which on May 3, 2019, announced the sale of SKB Group to the Hungarian OTP Group," Milan Ziaran, alternate chief executive officer of SKB, said.
"The conclusion of the sale process is expected towards the end of this year, depending on the approval of the various regulatory bodies. OTP Group is a strategic owner with a longterm vision of development, which will enable SKB Group to successfully meet new challenges and opportunities also in the future," Ziaran added.
The group’s net interest income increased 1.4% year-on-year to 41.6 million euro in the first half, while net non-interest income grew by 29.4% to 19 million euro.
Return on equity increased to 19.4% from 13.7%, while the cost-to-income ratio decreased from 48.3% to 52.4%.
SKB Bank’s market share in housing loans has increased by 10 basis points since the start of 2019 to 14% at the end of June.
SKB Group consists of SKB Banka, SKB Leasing and SKB Leasing Select.
($ = 0.894902 euro)