Grupo Supervielle SA on May 21 posted a 147.6% jump in its first-quarter profit as the company saw sharply higher net interest income, along with higher service and insurance revenues.
The Argentine financial group reported attributable net income of 722.6 million Argentine pesos for the three months ended March 31, up from 291.8 million pesos earned a year earlier. EPS came to 1.58 pesos, compared to 80 centavos a year ago.
Net interest income for the quarter totaled 2.81 billion pesos, up from 2.56 billion pesos in the linked quarter and 1.93 billion pesos a year earlier. The net interest margin was 19.6%, compared to 20.0% three months earlier and 19.5% in the year-ago period.
Net service fee income also grew year over year to 891.0 million pesos from 740.1 million pesos. Income from insurance activities hit 148.7 million pesos, up from 110.0 million pesos a year earlier.
The income growth helped to offset higher personnel and administrative expenses, which grew 26.4% to 2.45 billion pesos from 1.94 billion pesos. Loan loss provisions were also up 101.2% year over year, at 726.1 million pesos.
Return on average equity was 20.6%, up from 18.0% a year earlier. Return on average assets was 3.3%, from 2.1% previously.
"Looking ahead, we believe that despite current economic and currency headwinds, the long-term growth story for the financial sector in Argentina remains intact. In the current context, which is one that we have successfully navigated in the past, we remain focused on healthy loan growth, mitigating risk and enhancing efficiency and profitability," Chairman and CEO Patricio Supervielle said in a statement. "We believe we can achieve results within the range of the guidance previously set out. Given the rapidly changing macroeconomic scenario, we are consistently closely monitoring the macro variables and how that impacts our guidance."
Supervielle also noted that the acquisition of Micro Lending SA will help the group in continuing to tap attractive growth potential that it sees in the auto financing market.
As of May 21, US$1 was equivalent to 24.23 Argentine pesos.
