Bank Forum Reports 2006 IFRS Financials

Bank Forum (FORM: HOLD) released its 2006 IFRS results, posting a 96% yoy increase in assets to USD 1.5 bln, as its customer loans more than doubled (+107% yoy) to USD 1.0 bln. Forum posted 2006 net interest income of USD 45.3 mln (+64% yoy), net fee & commission income of USD 44.0 mln (+37% yoy) and the bank’s total revenues were up 62% yoy to USD 58.9 mln. Forum’s operating costs increased by 89% yoy to reach USD 40.6 mln, bringing the bank’s operating income to USD 18.4 mln (+23% yoy). At the same time, due to the sharp growth (+84% yoy) in loan loss provisions, the bank reported a 57% drop in net income to USD 2.1 mln. Alexander Viktorov: Everything, except the level of provisions, was generally in line with our forecasts. We tend to attribute the high level of provisions based on IFRS accounting to very conservative methodology applied by the auditors. Our 2006 provisions estimates were close to the figure reported under local accounting standards, which better reflect the management’s assessment of risk structure of the bank’s loan portfolio. The management advised us they are currently harmonizing their provisioning policy with IFRS standards, which will make them more predictable.