(Reuters) - BGEO Group Plc (L:BGEO), the holding company for JSC Bank of Georgia, reported a 29.1 percent rise in full-year profit, helped by robust income in its banking and healthcare businesses, beating sluggish economic growth in the country.
The Tbilisi-headquartered bank, which was called Bank of Georgia Holdings until November, said profit rose to 310.9 million Georgian laris ($125.4 million) in the year ended Dec. 31 from 240.7 million Georgian laris a year earlier.
Net interest margin increased to 7.7 percent, up 10 basis points from a year ago.
Georgia's economic growth rate slowed to 2.8 percent in 2015 from 4.6 percent in 2014, hurt by a decline in exports and remittances and a plunge in the Russian rouble <RUB=>. The government expects 3 percent economic growth in 2016.