LONDON (Alliance News) - BGEO Group PLC on Monday reported growth in profit in the third quarter of 2016 and said it is confident on its full year, as it announced a USD50 million share buyback programme.
BGEO, which is a UK holding company for a Georgia-focused investment platform, said it made a pretax profit of GEL95.4 million in the third quarter of 2016, up from GEL84.2 million in the same period a year earlier. This equates to GBP30.7 million, up from GBP27.1 million, at current exchange rates.
Revenue, meanwhile, rose to GEL201.8 million from GEL190.0 million, equating to GBP64.8 million from GBP61.0 million. In the first nine months of the year, revenue increased by 3.6% to GEL570.0 million, or GBP183.1 million.
BGEO Group said it achieved sustained growth momentum across all business lines, including both its banking arm and the investment business. The main entity in BGEO Group's banking arm is JSC Bank of Georgia.
UK-listed Georgia Healthcare Group PLC comes under BGEO Group's investment arm, which the company said grew revenue by 81% year-on-year and by 41% quarter-on-quarter.
Earlier Monday BGEO had detailed a number of managerial appointments and shifting the business structure of JSC Bank of Georgia.
BGEO said that it will split the bank's Retail Banking business into two separate units. The first will be made up of the Express Bank operations for the emerging retail segment and the Bank of Georgia brand operations for mass retail, led by Mikheil Gomarteli, deputy chief executive officer of the Bank of Georgia.
The second unit will consist of the small and medium enterprise banking and premium retail banking businesses, led by Ramaz Kukuladze, who will be appointed as a deputy chief executive officer as well. Additionally, David Tsiklauri will join the bank from rival TBC Bank PLC, as a deputy chief executive officer and lead the Corporate Investment Banking department.
BGEO Group added that it will shortly implement a USD50 million share buyback and cancellation programme, over a two-year period. It will also instruct the administration group of the group employee benefits trust to purchase shares totalling around USD250 million.
"The group has delivered another quarter of excellent earnings which contributed to nearly 50% earnings per share growth over the first nine months of the year. Returns in both the banking business and the investment businesses continue to improve and the group is well positioned to deliver a strong performance for the full year and beyond," Chief Executive Irakli Gilauri said in a statement.
Shares in BGEO Group closed down 0.4% at 2,813.72 pence on Monday.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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Bank Of Georgia Group (BGEO)
