“Last year, OTP Bank exceeded all its previous results, and it will continue the construction and expansion that it started in the coming years,” said Sándor Csányi, President and CEO of OTP Bank, at the company’s annual general meeting on Friday in Budapest.
As Index reported, at the General Assembly, Finance Minister Mihály Varga explained that the stability of the Hungarian economy is due to full employment, a high investment rate, the reduction of the national debt and a strong banking system, which can contribute to economic growth in the coming years.
Sándor Csányi emphasized that the company is the market leader in five countries and has a significant market share in several other countries. The stability indicators developed well, the company group’s capital position is stable, organic growth is significant, credit quality has improved at the group level, and the adverse effects of one-off items and the war in Ukraine have moderated.
He called it a particularly great achievement that 64 percent of the group-level profit came from OTP’s foreign interests in 2023, significantly improving the risk-bearing capacity of the banking group.
Sándor Csányi then announced before the general meeting that the bank made a purchase offer in one of the EU countries on Thursday. He has not yet announced more about the deal, but noted that this could be the biggest acquisition in the bank’s history.
At the press conference following the general meeting, Sándor Csányi added, according to MTI, that Thursday’s purchase offer was made to a bank operating in an EU member state in which OTP has no interest. He added that they have been investigating the possibility of expansion in Poland for a long time, and they were reluctant to withdraw from Romania, but it seemed clear that they would not be given the opportunity to make acquisitions. Without it, it is difficult to turn a small bank into a big one in the local market, and the competent authorities in the neighboring country were apparently “happy” with OTP’s departure.
Based on the resolution adopted at the general meeting, the parent company’s balance sheet for 2023 was determined to be HUF 654.988 billion after tax, of which HUF 65.499 billion goes to general reserves in addition to the dividend payment.
The amount of the dividend is HUF 535.71 per share, but according to the articles of association, the dividend corresponding to own shares is also distributed among the beneficiaries. Out of the 280 million shares, 1.48 million are own shares, and calculating this, a dividend of HUF 538.6 per share can be received. Payment will begin on June 3, 2024. In the past, OTP paid a lower amount of dividends and dividends than now, HUF 84 billion in 2022, HUF 300 per share.
The general meeting accepted OTP Bank Nyrt.’s 2023 report, prepared in accordance with international financial reporting standards, as well as the report of the board of directors on OTP Bank’s business activities in 2023, with results of HUF 990.459 billion after consolidated taxes and HUF 1008.583 billion after consolidated adjusted taxes. In 2022, OTP Bank closed with HUF 347.081 billion consolidated and HUF 592.547 billion consolidated adjusted profit after tax.
At the general meeting, the shareholders approved that OTP’s board of directors continue to purchase own shares. The company is a premium-category issuer of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT), its shares gained 0.78 percent on Thursday and closed at 17,230 forints, their exchange rate ranging from 9,688 to 17,845 forints within a year.
Tags: Index Economy OTP preparing largest acquisition history
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