Presentation to the Investors 2016 (May)
During the meeting between investors and CEOs of the companies listed on the Stock Exchange arranged by the Nasdaq Vilnius on 03 May 2016 Chief Executive Officer of Šiaulių Bankas Vytautas Sinius introduced the performance result and outlook of the bank.
Vytautas Sinius spoke on Šiaulių Bankas ambition and opportunities to grow. He delivered the information on what the bank had already achieved and what it was planning for the nearest future.
"Being a bank with the biggest share of the Lithuanian capital we feel our uniqueness in the market and this is how we position ourselves, although, through partnership, we are linked to the numerous foreign financial institutions", - Chief Executive Officer of Šiaulių Bankas Vytautas Sinius started his presentation. - We aim at becoming one of the strongest Lithuanian brands and this ambition has a solid foundation. The customers appreciate our speed, flexibility, quality of servicing, we may look at the client's problem individually, our credit portfolio is well diversified, we start working with the investing clients actively and seek professionalism in each area. "
According to V.Sinius Šiaulių Bankas developing new services and increasing the customer base grew organically. Acquisition and integration of the bank Finasta completed within half a year did not impede Šiaulių Bankas from earning the record profit both in 2015 ( EUR 21.2 million of the net profit) and over Q1 of the current year ( EUR 20.7 million of the unaudited net profit) . The return on equity of the Group reached 19 per cent.
Speaking on background of 2016, the bank's CEO stated that interest rates would remain low, the net interest margin would be stable, however, the downward pressure on loan interest rates and debt securities yield would be balanced by lower costs of term deposits. After significant loss resulting from the loan portfolio impairment incurred in 2014-2015 the considerably lower costs are planned. According to V.Sinius it is not planned to increase the bank's capital by additional contributions , major part of the earned profit will be allocated to increase the own capital base, higher revenue is expected from operations with securities and investment products, and the dividend policy will remain alike in the nearest future. He has also mentioned that in 2016 the bank will be focusing on information technologies and optimization of internal processes.
Meanwhile, according to the analysts who participated in the event arranged by the Stock Exchange looking at the global economic trends uncertainty is predominating (China's "transformation" from the industry to the service sector, the referendum campaign launched in the UK regarding withdrawal from the EU, etc.) - all this hinders economic development, international trade is slowing down, tendency to save is increasing. The big world-wide problem also includes the stagnating business investments, which, on their turn, are pushing down the national GDP indicators. It is forecasted that this year the economy will grow similarly to last year. A slightly bigger economy upturn is expected in September 2016. Anticipating the increase in consumption and recovery of export volume, the growth is planed in Lithuania too, although the pace will be low. The analysts sate that recently population of Lithuanian has more tended to invest in real estate not in shares though the returns are quite similar. As for the labour market, it is noticed that more and more investments are made to the employees' know-how, their training and competencies.
Besides the presentation delivered by Šiaulių Bankas, the CEOs of such financial groups as LHV Group, Klaipėdos Nafta and Agrowill Group joining the Tallin stock exchange also introduced activities of their companies.
The survey conducted by Verslo Žinios in March 2016 with brokers, analysts and investment managers showed that the financial market players consider Šiaulių Bankas, listed on the Vilnius stock exchange, as one of the most promising and favourite companies - the Lithuanian capital market players actually recommend buying the bank's shares. This opinion was also supported by the fact that at the time when the companies introduced themselves to investors at the Nasdaq Vilnius the biggest number of transactions (more than 56) were concluded with the shares of Šiaulių Bankas. On 03 May 2016 Šiaulių bankas share price grew by nearly 2 per cent, up to 0.309 euro.
