Abanka d.d. hereby publishes the Unaudited Interim Report of the Abanka Group for the first half of 2018.

This announcement will also be available online at www.abanka.si as of 5 September 2018 for a period of no less than 10 years.

The announcement in the English language is for information purposes only.

In 2018, Abanka has continued to implement the set strategic objectives and to focus on accelerating the digital transformation, optimising the loan process and staff renewal.

Abanka generated a net profit of EUR 40.4 million in the first six months of 2018. In the extremely low interest rate environment, Abanka’s net interest income amounted to EUR 29.5 million and net fee and commission income to EUR 18.5 million. The Bank continues to intensively streamline its operations, which compared with the respective period of 2017 resulted in 2.2% or EUR 0.7 million lower operating expenses, totalling EUR 33.6 million.

As at 30 June 2018, Abanka’s total assets amounted to EUR 3.7 billion, whilst its market share in terms of total assets stood at 9.6%. 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 23.1%.

In the first half of 2018, the Abanka Group continued to actively reduce non-performing loans, which decreased by EUR 128.6 million, while the portion of non-performing loans in total loans of the Group declined by 4.7 percentage points to 5.5% as at the reporting date.

On 26 April 2018, the international credit rating agency Fitch Ratings affirmed the Bank’s stability and strength by assigning it a Long-Term Issuer Default Rating of “BB+” with a stable outlook. Furthermore, it affirmed the Bank’s Short-Term Issuer Default Rating at “B”, Viability Rating at “bb+”, Support Rating at “5” and Support Rating Floor at “No Floor”.

In the second half of 2018, the Bank will not only continue with the optimisation of its operations but will also take on the new challenges of digitalisation, while ensuring safe, stable and profitable operations. In parallel, activities relating to the sale of the Bank will be performed in accordance with the commitment made to the European Commission.