BGEO GROUP PLC (Reuters) - BGEO Group Plc (>> Bgeo Group PLC), the holding company for JSC Bank of Georgia, reported a 29 percent rise in full-year profit, helped by robust income in its banking and healthcare businesses, beating sluggish economic growth in the country.
The Tbilisi-headquartered bank, which was called Bank of Georgia Holdings until November, said profit rose to 310.9 million laris ($125.4 million) in 2015 from 240.7 million laris a year earlier.
Net interest margin rose to 7.7 percent, up 10 basis points from the previous year.
Georgia's economic growth rate slowed to 2.8 percent in 2015 from 4.6 percent in 2014, hurt by a decline in exports and remittances and a plunge in the Russian rouble
Bank of Georgia has more than a third of Georgian banks' market share based on total assets, total loans, total deposits and total shareholders' equity.
The bank, which gained premium listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2012, said revenue increased 39.6 percent to 751.3 million laris.
Banking net interest income rose 43.3 percent to 501.3 million laris.
Net profit jumped 78.1 percent to 23.6 million laris at the company's healthcare business, which comprises Georgia Healthcare Group, the country's largest health insurance provider.
"With a healthcare business, a real estate business and an investment management business that have the potential to create significant value, the shares will do well either through crystallising the value in the subsidiaries or simply through continued earnings growth," Panmure Gordon analysts wrote in a note.
BGEO's stock rose as much as 5 percent to 1813 pence on Tuesday morning on the London Stock Exchange.
Rival TBC Bank (>> TBC Bank JSC) will report its full-year results on Thursday.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair and Gopakumar Warrier)
