Q3 2007 Turkiye Garanti Bankasi Earnings Conference Call - Final.

Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

MURAT MERGIN, HEAD, BOARD OF STRATEGIC PLANNING, TURKIYE GARANTI BANKASI: Good evening, to all. Welcome to Garanti's conference call for its presentation of Q3 '07 consolidated earnings -- financials. I'm Murat Mergin. I'm here with [Mehmet Sezgin] and [Hanitzu Analwaygo] from Investor Relations.

In summary, Q3 has been characterized by continued asset growth, specifically lending. We registered significant market share gains across the board, both in TL products and foreign currency products. And I'll mention later on in the presentation, we've gained market share in almost every product.

On the funding side, we registered above the growth rates registered by the sector, both in time and demand deposits. One very important item for us, net fees and commissions. You'll see very strong quarterly growth. Ordinary banking income continued to expand above the peer group and the sector and customer-driven sources of Ordinary Banking income went up to almost 86%.

Efficiency continues for the Bank. Continued growth in revenues and keeping our costs, operating expenses, under control, we registered, again, a drop in cost income, even though we've opened up 74 net branches in the first nine months of the year.

Compared to the same period last year, our cost to income is 551 basis points better. Profitability is on track and above our expectations. Our ROE is 29%. Our ROA is about 2.69%.

As you know, we had the proceeds from sale of our insurance affiliates during the first half. We've also received proceeds from the sale of our custody business during the beginning of Q3 and we have a very solid capital adequacy ratio of 13.8%, a bit under 14% and, Bank only, we're above 15%.

Looking at assets, our total asset growth since beginning of the year, flat terms, 17.2. During Q3 we grew our assets by 3.4%. Much of this growth came from lending. Looking at composition of our interest-earning assets, we've moved slightly in favor of Turkish lira to 52.2. And earning assets which, in total assets, went up to 93% from 92.7% at the end of June.

In loans for the quarter, we grew by 4.5%. Since the beginning of the year, it's up to 23.5%. Again, as I mentioned at the beginning of the conference, we grew across the board pretty much. Looking at the composition, about 45% of our lending is what we call Retail, composed of consumer credit cards and SMEs. This is up from 43.7% at the end of June.

And looking at some of the market shares, in total Turkish lira, we increased our market share by 143 basis points to 11.3. And in foreign currency lending, we increased our market share by 82 bps to 22.2%.

Looking at individual currencies, TL loan growth for the quarter was 6.2%. This is pretty much same as the first quarter growth rate, slightly below the growth in second quarter. Year-to-date growth is 26.5%. In foreign currency, during the quarter we grew by a bit under 11%, at 10.9. Year-to-date growth is 39%, exceptionally strong. Again, in both currencies we've gained market share.

Looking at the Retail lending, this is one area where we're extremely pleased. We've gained market share in all products. For example, our market share in housing mortgages is up to 14%. Beginning of the year, this was 12.3%. In auto loans we're almost up to 17%. Beginning of the year, this was about 15.1.

General-purpose lending, again, a very high-yielding product. Our market share went up to 9.6% from 8.3% at the beginning of the year.

Consumer and commercial installment loans were up to 12.6% from 11.3% at the beginning of the year.

Looking at quarterly growth rates, we're extremely pleased. Housing loans we grew by 13.8%. Previous quarter, this growth was 12.4%. First quarter it was 10.8%. So we're on an increasing trend and gaining and …