The FINANCIAL — Shares of TBC PLC, the parent company of TBC Bank, have joined the FTSE 250 Index, a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Promotions and demotions to and from this index take place quarterly in March, June, September and December. This Index is calculated in real-time and published every minute.
“Joining the index FTSE 250 is a really big change not only for TBC Bank but for entrepreneurship in Georgia in general,” Vakhtang Butskhrikidze, CEO and General Director of TBC Bank, told The FINANCIAL. “TBC Bank was allowed to join the FTSE 250 by meeting special criteria. Today, the capitalization of TBC Bank is more than 900 mln GBP and daily trade volume is more than 2 mln USD. This allows us to attract more investors to TBC Bank, but this also encourages Georgian companies to join the London Stock Exchange. I think that during the next two years up to five Georgian companies will place their stocks to trade on the LSE,” Butskhrikidze said.
“It means that investors will have trust in the economic development of the banking sector in general and then in companies specifically. It will lead new companies to success.”
TBC Bank, together with its subsidiaries, is the leading universal banking group in Georgia, with a total market share of 30.3% of loans (or 37.8% taking into account TBC Bank’s holding in JSC Bank Republic) and 33.4% of non-banking deposits (or 37.6% taking into account TBC Bank’s holding in JSC Bank Republic) as of 31 March, 2017, according to data published by the National Bank of Georgia.
“Premium Listing means that your company meets the highest standards of corporate governance. The listing at LSE was among our short and medium term goals. In 2014 we became a public company, then we moved to Premium Listing. In the next two years we will be focused on our business operations, new technologies and products. We recently concluded a deal with investment company Symbiotics regarding 45 mln funding with quite a low interest rate – GEL 9.75%. The 3-year local currency facility will enable TBC Bank to finance micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Georgia,” Butskhrikidze said.
“Successful completion of this transaction is of great importance to not only the financial sector but the entire Georgian economy. These funds will enable TBC Bank to further expand its operations throughout the country and provide local currency financing to micro, small and medium-sized businesses. This is our first transaction with Symbiotics SA and we are pleased to have begun our partnership with this local currency loan.”
“We have several innovations for SME businesses as well. TBC enables legal entities to open an account and register as a client remotely, without visiting a bank branch. Opening an account and registering as a client online is an innovative service that has no analogue in the region. The procedure is simple and takes just a few minutes.”
One more innovation that was integrated in TBC Bank is a business map. The application enables users to get comprehensive information about the various fields of business. Any startup or well established company can get information on the situation in the industry of their interest in a particular geographic location. In addition they can compare their performance – revenues, costs, profit, number of employees or their wages to similar fields of business locally, as well as in other regions of Georgia. By the end of the year we will offer our clients more innovative projects.”
“The 1st of June was a very important date for us. TBC Bank’s management and Head of the National Bank of Georgia met with British investors. We provided them with all the details about current conditions and plans. It was a very dynamic meeting involving many potential investors.”
“The banking sector is one of the most progressive and developed sectors in Georgia. It has managed to overcome important challenges related to the currency crisis in the region. The Georgian banking sector was the most successful in this regard.”
In 2015 the Georgian economy faced many challenges including GEL devaluation. But if we compare it with the tendencies in neighbour countries, where local currencies also had problems, Georgian banks successfully overcame these problems and from the second half of 2016, there has been ongoing stability. The financial sector is important for the development of the current economy and for the future success of the banking sector.
“TBC was successful in reducing Dolarization and raising the volume of loans in the national currency in 1Q. For example we had about 65% by the end of the year and for the first quarter we reduced this index to 61%. It also made a significant contribution to the state Larization plan. The largest share of loans in GEL was issued by TBC Bank,” Butskhrikidze told The FINANCIAL.
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