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Weekly Lists
October 13, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 27
bne:Banker
Georgia's banks
well positioned to withstand pressures, concludes Fitch Ratings
Otkritie’s capital goes into the red
Georgian banks are well positioned to absorb potential pressures thanks to their good asset quality metrics and high capitalisation, ratings agency Fitch concluded at its annual conference in Tbilisi on October 10.
Georgia's banking sector is dominated by two large banks, TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia, which together command two-thirds of loans and deposits. The sector has weathered the economic slow- down and monetary depreciation in recent years well.
The banks are well capitalised, Fitch writes, with the capital ad- equacy ratio at end-June at a healthy 16.1%, sufficient to absorb moderate losses if asset quality comes under pressure. However, the high dollarisation rates - 58% of lending was in dollars at end- June - continue to pose a risk for the sector.
The capital of ailing lender Financial Corporation Otkritie, which the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is bailing out through its Bank- ing Sector Consolidation Fund (BSCF), has declined by RUB347bn ($6bn) to negative RUB188.9bn, Vedomosti reported on October 11.
According to the report, the decline was caused because of crea- tion of additional reserves and re-evaluation of the lender's securi- ties. The lender's temporary administration is still going through its records, so the size of the hole could go up.
But it is already clear that this is third most expensive collapse of a Russian bank in modern history. The cost of bailing out failing banks this summer saw the sector’s profits plunge by RUB322bn ($5.6bn), the first fall in the sector’s profits for years.
Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ) is planning to raise the capital of Turkish unit Alternatifbank by between $500mn and $1bn, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on October 10.
Founded in 1991, Alternatifbank is Turkey’s 19th largest lender by assets. The lender hiked its paid-in capital by 27% to TRY980mn (€226mn) in February while its capital adequacy ratio stood at 20.2% at end-June.
CBQ bought a 70.84% stake in Alternatifbank from Anadolu Endus- tri Holding in July 2013, and has since raised its stake to become the sole owner of the Turkish bank.
Qatari CBQ reportedly plans to up capital
in Turkish unit Alternatifbank