Ljubljana, 13 April (STA) - Slovenia's largest banking group NLB doubled its net profit last year to a record EUR 225.1m owing to profitable operations by the parent bank and all strategic banking subsidiaries, the bank said.
The release issued after Friday's session of the supervisory board, said the group trumped its target by reducing the ratio of non-performing loans to 9.2%, and the ratio of non performing exposures to 6.67%.
"The excellent collection results in combination with a good macro outlook resulted in a net release of provisions and therefore contributed significantly to profitability," the release reads.
The supervisory board expressed satisfaction with what it said were the best results in the group's history. It noted progress in digitalization and streamlining and modernization of processes and services.
"Both the bank and the group members have played an active role of a generator of innovative, advanced and simple solutions for their clients at their local markets," NLB supervisory board chairman Primož Karpe was quoted as saying.
Detailed information on the NLB group's performance will be available on Monday as the group is to release its audited report for 2017.
Unofficial information indicates that the parent bank generated a net profit of EUR 190m.
As the sole owner of the bank, the state could hope for a record high dividend payout, after last year's EUR 63.8m, however the payment is uncertain due to the Croatian lawsuits over Yugoslav-era deposits.
The bank needs to adjust the divided payout with the European Central Bank. Unofficially, NLB is to propose to pay out the entire profit of the parent bank.