LHV Group 2019 Audited Annual Report and Dividend ProposalAS LHV Group Supervisory Board has approved the company’s audited annual accounts for 2019 as presented by the Management Board. There are no differences in the audited accounts as regards the financial results, compared to the unaudited financial results published on 4 February. The consolidated annual report 2019 of AS LHV Group has been enclosed to the announcement and will be made available on LHV’s homepage at https://investor.lhv.ee/en/reports/#annual-reports. The Group’s pre-tax profit for 2019 amounted to EUR 31.3 million and net profit was EUR 27.1 million. The part attributable to Group’s shareholders amounted to EUR 24.8 million. Compared to 2018 the pre-tax profit grew 1% or by EUR 0.4 million and net profit decreased 0% or by EUR 0.1 million. In a year, LHV Group’s net interest income grew 19% and net fee income decreased by 1%. Financial income was 80% lower compared to 2018, when financial income also included the gains from selling LHV’s Lithuanian business unit. In 2019, the consolidation group's net income was EUR 73.8 million and increased by 5% compared to the previous year. Operating expenses amounted to 39.3 million euros and increased by 16% over the year. The Group achieved the financial forecast renewed in July 2019. In a year, the total volume of the Group’s consolidated loan portfolio less impairments increased by EUR 768 million, that is by 84%, and amounted to EUR 1.69 billion. In the loan portfolio, the majority is corporate loans that increased 33% in a year to EUR 880 million (EUR 664 million in 2018). The portfolio of retail loans increased 207% in a year, amounting to EUR 813 million (EUR 265 million in 2018). The volume of Group’s deposits together with received loans increased 89% in a year and totalled EUR 2.73 billion by the year-end (EUR 1.44 billion in 2018). Volume of funds managed by LHV grew EUR 160 million in 2019, which indicates an increase of 13%. By year end the volume of managed funds totalled EUR 1.37 billion (EUR 1.21 billion in 2018). When it comes to business units, AS LHV Bank’s net profit for 2019 was EUR 22.2 million, growing 3.8 million compared with previous year. AS LHV Varahaldus earned a net profit in amount of EUR 6.1 million, which is EUR 0.7 million less than previous year. LHV Group as a separate entity earned a profit of EUR 5.5 (11.7 in 2018) million, due to the fact that subsidiaries paid dividends to LHV Group. Dividend Proposal The Management Board of AS LHV Group proposes to the General Meeting of Shareholders to distribute the profit of the financial year 2019 as follows: - pay dividends EUR 0.19 per share in the total amount of EUR 5.406 million; related income tax would be EUR 1.1 million.
- transfer the profit for reporting period attributable to shareholders of the parent in the amount of EUR 19.525 million to retained earnings.
The list of shareholders entitled to receive dividends will be fixed as at 27 March 2020 COB. Consequently, the day of change of the rights related to the shares (ex-dividend date) is set to 26 March 2020. From this day onwards, the person acquiring the shares will not have the right to receive dividends for the financial year 2019. Dividends will be disbursed to shareholders on 31 March 2020. LHV Group is the largest domestic financial group and capital provider in Estonia. LHV Group's key subsidiaries are LHV Pank and LHV Varahaldus. LHV employs over 440 people. LHV’s banking services are used by more than 207,000 clients, and pension funds managed by LHV have more than 176,000 active clients.
Priit Rum
Communication Manager
Phone: +372 502 0786
Email: priit.rum@lhv.ee
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