Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani PASHA Bank's assets grew 10 per cent in the first six months of 2012, amounting to over 630.07 million manats (nearly $802.64 million), board member Shahin Mammadov said at a news conference on Wednesday.

In August auditing company Ernst & Young presented a report on the financial indicators of PASHA Bank for the first half-year.

"In the first half PASHA Bank once again retained its position as one of the leading players in the market," Mammadov said. "Total capital reached 177.41 million manats compared to 149.18 million manats as of late 2011 and 141.89 million manats in the first half of last year."

He said the loan portfolio accounted for 45 per cent of the assets, the portfolio of securities was 39 per cent, while funds from financial institutions made up seven per cent, cash and cash equivalents -- five per cent and other assets four per cent.

In the six-month period the bank kept liquidity at the desired level with an insignificant five per cent decline in the securities portfolio (248.71 million manats compared to 260.98 million at the end of 2011). The loan portfolio increased by 22 per cent and amounted to 300.33 million manats compared to 246.77 million manats at the end of 2011. The share of non-business loans in the total loan portfolio was 10.84 per cent compared to 10.75 per cent last year.

Over the six months, customer accounts were worth a total of 360.24 million manats. Interest income amounted to 23.79 million manats, while non-interest income was 3.15 million manats, Mammadov said.

He said the bank's pre-tax income in the first half amounted to 7.14 million manats and net profit stood at 5.47 million manats. Return on assets (ROA) was 4.5 per cent with the return on equity (ROE) at 18.13 per cent.

The volume of operations of the bank doubled to 88.4 million manats. "Currently, the strategic goal is to increase the portfolio of trade finance to 105 million manats by the end of the year," Mammadov said.

PASHA Bank was established in June 2007. The bank, along with Pasha Insurance, PASHA Life, Pasha Travel and Pasha Construction, is included in the Pasha Holding Company, which is actually an investment company, not a typical holding company.

Kapital Bank is also included in the structure of Pasha Group. The Holding owns 99.75 per cent of the shares in Kapital Bank.

Pasha Bank shareholders are PASHA Holding with 60 per cent, ADOR Ltd with 30 per cent and private shareholder Arif Pashayev with 10 per cent.