Lion Finance Group PLC (LON:BGEO) has announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the second quarter and first half of 2026 (2Q26 and 1H26). Unless otherwise noted, 2Q26 results are compared year-on-year with 2Q25 and quarter-on-quarter with 1Q26; 1H26 results are compared year-on-year with 1H25.
The results have been prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34 “Interim Financial Reporting” as adopted by the United Kingdom and the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, are unaudited and derived from management accounts.
Earnings call on 11 August 2026, 14:00 BST
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Segmentation guide
The Group’s results are presented by the following Business Divisions: 1) Georgian Financial Services (GFS), 2) Armenian Financial Services (AFS), and 3) Other Businesses.
- GFS mainly comprises JSC Bank of Georgia and the investment bank JSC Galt and Taggart.
- AFS includes Ameriabank CJSC.
- Other Businesses includes JSC Belarusky Narodny Bank (BNB), which serves retail and SME clients in Belarus; JSC Digital Area, a digital ecosystem in Georgia including e-commerce, ticketing, and inventory management SaaS; Lion Finance Group PLC, the holding company; and other small entities and intragroup eliminations.
Customer franchise expansion across core markets drives continued growth momentum
- Consolidated 2Q26 profit of GEL 618.8 million (+20.6% y-o-y) and 1H26 profit of GEL 1,203.8m (+17.3% y-o-y)
- 2Q26 dividend of GEL 3.05 per share, bringing 1H26 dividend to GEL 5.90 per share, up 15.7% y-o-y; with a further GEL 59.0m share buyback and cancellation programme.
Archil Gachechiladze, CEO of Lion Finance Group, said: “Our results for the first half reflect a business performing with a real momentum. In Georgia, although our franchise has already reached significant scale, customer engagement continues to deepen – Daily Active Users surpassed 1 million for the first time, up 20.0% year-on-year, with the loan book growing 17.1% y-o-y. In Armenia, we are growing well ahead of both the market and our own guidance, with the loan book up 36.8% year-on-year in constant currency, and Retail Digital MAU surging 47.0% year-on-year, as we scale the franchise and gain market share in one of the region’s most dynamic economies.”
Group performance highlights
- A growing active customer base and larger balance sheet supported a 19.6% y-o-y increase in operating income before cost of risk to GEL 1,551.4m in 1H26, with profit up 17.3% y-o-y to GEL 1,203.8m and a half-year ROAE of 27.2%.
- Bank of Georgia’s Retail Digital MAU grew 13.3% y-o-y to 1,922.1 thousand individuals, while Retail Digital DAU surpassed 1 million for the first time, up 20.0% y-o-y, reflecting continued deepening of customer engagement across our Georgian franchise.
- Ameriabank’s Retail Digital MAU surged 47.0% y-o-y to 392.1 thousand individuals, while Retail Digital DAU grew 58.3% y-o-y to 174.2 thousand individuals, underscoring the accelerating momentum of our Armenian retail franchise.
- The Group’s loan book reached GEL 44,429.0m as at 30 June 2026, up 23.0% y-o-y in constant currency (cc). The growth was fuelled by loan book expansion across both the Georgian (GFS) and Armenian (AFS) operations, which recorded year-on-year cc increases of 17.1% and 36.8%, respectively.
- Client deposits and notes totalled GEL 43,664.8m as at 30 June 2026, reflecting a 26.8% y-o-y increase in cc. GFS deposits rose by 24.2% y-o-y, partly elevated by Ministry of Finance deposits; excluding these, growth stood at 18.4% y-o-y, driven by continued strong growth across the board. AFS deposits grew by 37.1% y-o-y, with broad-based growth across both retail and corporate segments.
- The Group maintained healthy asset quality, with the cost of credit risk ratio at 0.6% in 2Q26 (0.5% in 2Q25) and 0.5% in 1H26 (0.4% in 1H25), while the NPL ratio stood at 2.1% as at 30 June 2026 (1.9% as at 30 June 2025).
- Net operating income was up 19.5% y-o-y to GEL 1,241.6m in 2Q26 and up 17.3% y-o-y to GEL 2,366.5m in 1H26. The annual top-line growth was primarily driven by net interest income generated by both GFS and AFS, complemented by net fee and commission income generation across both operations.
- Group NIM reached 6.3% in both 2Q26 and 1H26, expanding 20 bps and 30 bps y-o-y respectively, with the improvement driven by a strong NIM performance at GFS – where margins widened by 40 bps y-o-y in both periods to reach 6.4% in 2Q26. On a q-o-q basis, GFS’s NIM was up 10 bps, while that of AFS held steady at 6.0%.
- The Group’s operating expenses increased by 12.8% y-o-y to GEL 426.7m in 2Q26 and by 13.2% y-o-y to GEL 816.1m in 1H26. The y-o-y growth was driven primarily by GFS, which saw expenses rise by 13.9% y-o-y in 2Q26 and 15.2% y-o-y in 1H26, mainly driven by higher staff costs and administrative costs (see details on page 9).
- The effective tax rate, which stood at 17.6% in 2Q26 for the Group, was impacted by an additional tax charge attributable to dividends received from Ameriabank; excluding this item, the normalised effective tax rate would have been 16.5%, broadly in line with the prior quarter.
- Capital adequacy and liquidity positions for both Bank of Georgia and Ameriabank remained comfortably above the minimum regulatory requirements (for details, see pages 10 and 13).
