Ljubljana, 20 February (STA) - NLB, Slovenia's largest bank, posted a group net profit of nearly EUR 204m for 2018. The 10% drop compared to 2017 is to a large extent the result of a larger tax bill, show preliminary results released on Wednesday.
The bank saw both interest and non-interest income rise by a percent to EUR 313m and EUR 180m, respectively, whereas costs likewise rose by a percent to EUR 289m.
It generated slightly over EUR 23m from the cancellation of impairments and provisions, a fifth less than in 2017, whereas the income tax bill rose five-fold to EUR 22m.
The bank said the tax bill was higher due to "significant positive non-recurring effects" it registered in 2017.
Total assets increased by 4% to EUR 12.74bn, as net lending expanded by 2% to EUR 7.15bn and deposits increased by 6% to EUR 10.46bn.
The volume of non-performing loans contracted by 26% to EUR 622m, with the share of non-performing loans down 2.3 percentage points to 6.9%.
Non-performing exposure, a measure used by the European Banking Agency, improved by two percentage points to 4.7%.
The total capital ratio improved by almost a percentage point to 16.7%.
The unaudited financial report will be released on 8 March.