Kazkommertsbank's profit falls after BTA buy
ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Kazkommertsbank (KKB), Kazakhstan's largest lender by assets, reported a 10.7 percent fall in nine-month net income after its purchase of a stake in bailed-out BTA Bank left it with more bad loans on its books.
KKB's net income was 20.0 billion tenge ($100 million) in the January to September period, compared with 22.4 billion tenge in the same period of 2013, it said on Wednesday, reports AKI Press. KKB bought a 46.5 percent stake in BTA from the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna in the second quarter. Kazakh businessman Kenes Rakishev bought another 46.5 percent stake in BTA from the fund. Samruk-Kazyna had bailed out BTA, the country's third largest lender, in the global financial crisis. Before the merger non-performing loans accounted for around 87 percent of BTA's loan portfolio and some 29 percent of KKB's. KKB said its provisions for bad loans made up 59.0 percent of gross loans as of Sept. 30, compared with 34.0 percent as of Dec. 31, 2013.