State-run Ziraat posts record high profit at 4 bln liras

ANKARA

Ziraat Bank General Manager Hüseyin Aydın. AA photo

Turkey’s state-run Ziraat Bank posted a record high net profit at 4.05 billion Turkish Liras ($1.62 billion) in 2014 on net interest income of 8.6 billion liras with a 22 percent rise from the previous year.

The bank said in a written statement to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) late Feb. 10 that its loan book expanded to 141.9 billion liras from 111.05 billion liras in 2013.

The bank reached a total of 1,682 branches in the country in 2014 with 53 new branches, aiming at having 2,000 branches in the medium-term, general manager of the bank Hüseyin Aydın said in a written statement.

“We perform services in more than 80 points in 16 countries abroad and we aim to increase this number,” he said.

“Our bank in Montenegro, of which all official permits have been received, and our Kosovo branch will be opened in the first half of the year. Our partnership with AzerTurk Bank in Azerbaijan already continues and in addition to this, we plan to open a new bank, for which we have obtained all permissions with a capital base completely owned by our bank, by the midst of the year,” he added.

Aydın also said Ziraat Bank will be diversifying its financial services with the planned Islamic bank unit in 2015.

He noted the bank had doubled its loan base for the last two years.