Alliance Bank JSC (Kazakhstan) announces Q1 2008 results

26.06.08 12:55
/KASE, June 26, 08/ - Alliance Bank JSC (Almaty), a listing company of Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), provided KASE with the press release of June 25: Quotation start Almaty, June 25, 2008 - Alliance Bank (LSE: ALLB) disclosed its 1Q 2008 performance highlights based on IFRS audited consolidated financials. One of the main achievements of the Bank for the reported period was growth of its net interest income before reserves by 22 % against the same period of 2007. As of 1Q 2008 it amounted to KZT20,579 million (USD170.9 million). Strategy of the Bank targeted at business efficiency increase, allowed to see increase of interest as well as commission income. As of 1Q 2008, net commission income of the Bank totaled KZT176 million against losses of KZT 154 million for the same period of 2007. Main portion of commission income of the Bank are income cash settlement operations, which grew 2.5 times and comprised KZT2,205 million (USD18.3 million) as well as documentary operations income, increased 2.5 times and totaling KZT793 million (USD6.6 million) against the same period of 2007. Maintaining high profitability of operational activity, the Bank pays close attention to adequate liquidity levels, retaining liquid assets at the level of 20-23 % of total assets. Within 1Q 2008 level of liquid assets increased by 4 % as opposed to the indicator of 2007 and totaled KZT251 million (USD2.1 million). At the same time the Bank's liquidity ratio since beginning of 2008 grew by 1.3 % reaching 22.1 %. Liquidity k4 and k5 ratios under prudential norms of NBK comprised 443.7 % and 181.6 % accordingly while minimum requirements are 30 % and 50 % respectively. "In the first quarter of 2008, we primarily focused on maintenance of the Bank's adequate liquidity level and scheduled repayment of our liabilities to foreign investors. The Bank's foreign indebtedness in 2008 is USD1.22 bn., while 70 % of this amount falls due and will be repaid before July 1, 2008. In the current environment of insufficient liquidity, the Bank has the PIL scheduled repayments as the main source of funding. As of April 1 the assets with less than one year maturity made up KZT531 bn., which significantly exceeds liabilities with less than one year maturity totaling KZT375 bn. As a result, we are successfully managing all our short-term liabilities repayment, despite challenges connected with fundraising from international markets," said Erik Sultankulov, CEO of Alliance Bank. As was previously announced, as a result of environment change in international capital markets in 2007, the Bank has corrected its development strategy in order to settle new objectives. The Bank's new strategic targets encompass maintenance of stable growth and strengthening its position in the market as well as improvement of the service quality and operational efficiency. Maximum use of the stored knowledge, know how and technologies are aimed to attract more customers to the Bank. Alliance Bank will continue to be the leader and an innovator in retail banking. Customer service efficiency coupled with increased service quality are among the Bank's main priorities. For further information, please, contact: Public Relations Service: Tel. +7 (727) 259 80 76 E-mail: pr@alb.kz Web-site: www.alb.kz Investor Relations Tel.:+7 (727) 258 40 40 ext. 52030 E-mail: InvestorRelations@alb.kz Quotation end The full version of the press release of Alliance Bank JSC is available at the KASE website at: - http://www.kase.kz/emitters/scan/asbn/asbn_reliz_250608.pdf - in Russian; - http://www.kase.kz/emitters/scan/asbn/asbn_reliz_250608e.pdf - in English. [2008-06-26]