(Adds detail)
MOSCOW, May 11 (Reuters) – Russian lender TCS Group Holding said on Tuesday it made a record net profit in the first quarter as it increased the number of customers and reduced the share of bad loans.
The group, which runs Russia’s largest online bank Tinkoff, saw its net profit rising 57% year-on-year to 14.2 billion roubles ($191 million) in the first quarter of 2021.
TCS’ revenue grew 21% to 56.8 billion roubles in the January-March period as the non-credit businesses delivered an increasing share of revenue.
Like Russia’s top bank Sberbank, TCS is shifting away from pure banking to offer customers a wide range of other services, from stock investments to cinema tickets.
Moscow-listed GDRs in TCS were down 0.3% as of 0729 GMT, outperforming the benchmark MOEX index that slid 1.5% after hitting an all-time high the day before.
TCS said the number of customers rose to 14.8 million in the first quarter from 10.8 million a year earlier.
The first quarter of 2021 brought visible improvement to the cost of risk, which fell to 4.5% from 15.9% a year earlier.
The share of non-performing loans declined to 9.7% as of end-March from 10.3% as of end-2020.
The group, which recently acquired a majority stake in Beskontakt, the developer of a digital wallet app with more than 20 million users, reiterated its 2021 forecasts.
TCS said it expected its full-year net profit to be at least 55 billion roubles and non-credit businesses to generate more than 40% of total revenues after this ratio already reached 43% in the first quarter.
Source: Read Full Article