TBC Bank shares slide despite profit growth as user numbers tick up
TBC Bank Group PLC on Thursday said it made a ‘strong start’ to 2025 as it reported higher earnings for the first quarter and declared a quarterly dividend.
The Tbilisi, Georgia-based bank said net pretax profit increased 7.2% to ₾367.8 million in the three months to the end of March, around £101.0 million, from ₾343.2 million a year ago.
Shares in TBC Bank were down 10% to 4,350.00 pence in London on Thursday morning.
Total operating income climbed 25% to ₾774.2 million from ₾618.0 million.
Of this, net interest income was up 20% to ₾533.2 million from ₾442.8 million while net fee and commission income surged 42% to ₾148.0 million from ₾104.3 million.
Other non-interest income grew 31% to ₾93.0 million from ₾70.8 million.
The number of total unique registered users grew 28% to 23.2 million from 18.1 million. The number of users in Uzbekistan climbed by a third to 19.7 million from 14.8 million, while total Georgian users grew 5.5% to 3.5 million from 3.3 million.
The firm said the board has approved quarterly dividend distributions. It declared an interim dividend of ₾1.5 per share for the quarter.
‘It was a very active quarter in building out our recent pipeline of new product launches. This included excellent growth in the issuance of our new Georgian daily banking product, TBC Card, with new card issuance almost tripling in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year,’ said Chief Executive Officer Vakhtang Butskhrikidze.
Looking ahead, Butskhrikidze said the bank is ‘well positioned to build on this solid start to the year,’ and it is ‘firmly on track’ to achieve all its strategic targets.
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