TBC Bank Group PLC (TBCG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
August 9, 2024
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
operatorHello, all, and welcome to the TBC Second Quarter and First Half 2021 Results Conference Call. My name is Harry, and I will be your operator. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Andrew Keeley, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead when you're ready.
Andrew Keeley
executiveThanks very much, Harry, and welcome, everybody, to our second quarter results call. Thank you very much for joining. As usual, I'm joined on today's call by our CEO Vakhtang Butskhrikidze; and our CFO, Giorgi Megrelishvili. We'll start with a presentation, and then we'll move on to Q&A. And with that, I'll hand over to Vakhtang. Thank you.
Vakhtang Butskhrikidze
executiveThank you, Andrew. Dear all, thank you for joining our second quarter and half year financial results conference call. I am pleased to announce that the second quarter has been another very successful quarter for our group. On this slide, you see an overview of some of the key highlights for the group. In particular, I'd like to highlight that it was a record quarter of earnings with a return of equity exited 27%. We continue to grow our digital consumer bases with our digital monthly active users now at 5.7 million, while our loan growth in both Georgia and Uzbekistan remains very strong, which Uzbekistan now accounting for 7% of the Group's earnings. Slide 4 highlights our journey over the past 10 year as public company. As you can see, we have stayed very focused around consistently delivering strong growth and profitability. At the same time, our active customer base has grown to nearly 6 million by strengthening our presence in Georgia and by building digital financial services in Uzbekistan growing market. The next slide provides an overview of our Group's second quarter performance. Our gross net profit increased by 12% year-on-year to almost GEL 330 million, and we maintained an excellent return of equity of 27.1%. At the same time, our gross loan portfolio grew by 21%. And our digital user base continues to expand with 5.7 million digital monthly active users across the group, as already mentioned. Moving to the Georgia business, Slide 7 summarizes the macro environment, which continues to be very supportive to our business. Economic growth in Georgia remained strong with real GDP increasing by 9% in the first half of this year. In particular, it has been driven by tourism, remittances and dollar spending. As a result, we have revised our 2024 real GDP growth forecast to 7.4% from 6.4%. I think you are familiar with our dominant market position in Georgia, which is outlined on Slide #8. One thing I'd like to flag here is the recognition we have received in terms of rewards for the best digital bank in Georgia and the best corporate bank. Following on the digital theme, Slide 9 shows that our retail customer base continues to become more digitally engaged. This is highlighted by the consistent long-term growth in both. The share of consumer loans issued by fully digitally and the share of online retail transactions. The next slide provides an update on TNET, our digital lifestyle ecosystem. As you can see, GMV is down slightly year-on-year in the first half of this year but this is primarily due to a very strong second quarter 2023, which was driven by exclusive ticket sales for several major events in Georgia. Moving to our Uzbekistan business, I'd like to provide you with a brief update on the Uzbek economy. The Uzbekistan economy continued to grow strongly with 6.4% real GDP growth in the first half, and the economy continues to open up and attract the new investments. Next slide outlines the key elements of our digital ecosystem in Uzbekistan. I'd like to highlight here that we remain focused and on track in terms of scaling up Uzbek business and rolling out new products and services. We have had several features in Payme in the first half, and we plan to roll out a transactional daily banking card as well as the credit cards in TBC UZ in the second half of this year. On the next slide, you can see how our Uzbek business continues to perform very well. We now have close to 16 million unique registered users, which almost 5 million market left users. Our loan book more than doubled year-on-year to $400 million, while deposits stood at around $260 million. Importantly, both our revenues and profitability continue to show very positive dynamics, and we earned $9 million in net profits and $33 million in total operating income in the second quarter. Finally, on the next slide, next slide shows the increasing contribution to the group that is coming from Uzbekistan. It accounts for 44% in total consumer loans, 8% of the retail deposit portfolio, 13% of the total operating income and 7% of the net profit. And we continue to gain market share with almost 16% shares of the micro loan market in May of this year. Now I'd like to hand over to Giorgi.
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveThank you, Martin, and thanks all for joining our quarterly call today. I'm going to take you through our second quarter and half year results. And I will start with Slide 17. I'm very pleased to reiterate that we had a very strong second quarter. In Q2, our net profit stood at nearly GEL 300 million, that marks a 12% increase compared to last year. This high profitability is translated into a super 20% ROE. Now we'll go to the next slide, Slide 18, that provides more details about the main drivers. Our total operating income is up by 16% year-on-year, reaching nearly GEL 680 million. This growth was driven by a 15% rise in net interest income and 17% increase in net fee and commission income. On the next slide, Slide 9, I will discuss our margin dynamics. Our NIM decreased by about 10 basis points quarter-on-quarter but still stands at a very strong 6.4%. In Georgia, we continue to see margin pressure from the lower FX rate and higher FX founding costs. But we think that the majority of the downward pressure now is behind us. And notably, our Uzbek operations contributed more than 70 basis points to the group NIM. Now moving to the Slide 20, that's cost slide. We remain committed to managing our cost growth while simultaneously ensuring that we retain a long-term sustainability of our business. OpEx grew by 26% compared to last year due to our continued spending into technology to drive future growth. Uzbekistan remains the major driver, which actually accounted around 40% of this increase. And as a result, our cost-to-income ratio stood at 37.8% in Q2 '24. We generally target to be below 40% on a full year basis. So now Slide 21 that shows that our credit quality remains very healthy. The NPL ratio declined to 2% due to the strong performance of our portfolio. And at the same time, total coverage ratio was 142%, while the provision one stood at 76%. As you can see, our cost of risk improved both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year due to strong asset quality across all segments as well as one-off recovery of around GEL 9 million. So on the next slide, Slide 22, you can see that our balance sheet continues to grow at a very good pace. Gross loans is up by impressive of 21% on a constant currency basis. Meanwhile, the customer deposit grew by 10% over the same period on this same basis. So now let's move to the next slide and have a look at our very solid capital position across the group. As you can see from this slide, we continue to maintain very strong capital positions available of the minimum regulatory requirements for all tiers in both countries. I would like to highlight that TBC who has received additional around USD 38 million capital in '24 with up to EUR 12 million in June and the rest in July. This lays a great foundation for future growth that we are committed to. And as importantly, from the 1st of July, the risk weight for the new uncollateralized consumer loans in Uzbekistan is based on PTI levels versus loan rates. It's still a bit early days but going forward, we expect new loans to be issued at a materially lower risk weight versus current 200%, which is very positive news. And finally, continuing the same note, Slide 24 shows the exceptional financial performance of our Uzbek business. In Q2 24, we generated USD 33 million in total operating income and USD 9 million net profit layer that contribute around 13% and 7% of the Group total, respectively. Over the same period, the ROE was super 27.8%, supported by NIM of above 24%, and despite our loan book more than doubling year-on-year, we remain committed to very strong underwriting as reflected in our cost of risk of 5.5%. Now thanks for your time, and I'd like to hand back to Vakhtang for some final remarks.
Vakhtang Butskhrikidze
executiveThank you, Giorgi. And finally, I'm pleased to announce that the Board has declared an interim dividend of GEL 2.55 per share payable in November. This is in addition to GEL 50 million share buyback program and reflects our robust profitability and strong capital position, and underscores our commitment to delivering value to our shareholders. And finally, we remain focused on hitting our strategic targets for 2025. And I'd like to thank you for your ongoing support, and we are now ready to answer any questions you may have.
Andrew Keeley
executiveThanks very much, Giorgi and Vakhtang. So we're ready to ask -- to hear questions now. Okay. The first question is from Robert of Peel Hunt.
Robert Sage
analystYes. I was wondering whether I could ask the first question relating to net interest margins in 2 parts, really. First of all, I hear what you said, Giorgi, in terms of the probably most of the worst of the downward pressure has now ended in terms of your Georgian margin. Do you think there that you're able to keep it fairly stable on the Q2 level? I think that was about 5.6%. The second part of the question was looking at the Uzbek margin, which has continued to go up and just sort of trying to think through the implications of these lower risk weightings for your new consumer lending. Do you think that sort of given the fact that there will be now lower capital intensity, this could actually affect net interest margins and pricing on those loans going forward? So -- or do you envisage you'll still be able to charge the same amount even though the capital allocation as well?
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveOkay. Thank you, Robert. I'll start with Georgia. So actually, as I mentioned, and you also agree with this, probably the worst is over. There may be some small variations plus 10 basis points, minus 10% but generally, we do target to be 5.5-plus in Georgia in the medium term. So that's -- I would think that in the medium term, sets line or target or our thinking. And moving to Uzbekistan, as you see, like from the numbers, the loans went up compared to last quarter and the cost going down, NIM is increasing. As you rightly mentioned, we need to refinance our capital need with the funding. But generally, we do expect our NIM not to compress. We are comfortable at this level. We expect it to continue at this level. Therefore, it will be the less capital requirement would impact our kind of very positively, we would need less capital to achieve the same results while maintaining the NIM because we don't expect any lower NIM, less compression or funding cost, material increase in Uzbekistan.
Andrew Keeley
executiveThanks very, Robert. Okay. Next question is from Sergey Dubin.
Unknown Analyst
analystYes. I have 2 questions. The first is on Georgia. Obviously, there's been a lot of headlines recently with respect to politics and this law they went to effect on August 1. What I'd like to -- I'm not going to ask you about predicting political outcome but what I do want to focus on is our cost of risk, which seems like it's abnormally low right now. And I think the situation in the country is not as call more predictable as these numbers are suggesting. So how is it that your cost of risk is so low? And what is the expectation for cost of risk for the full year 2024 and what is kind of the base case and the worst case scenario there? That's the first question.
Vakhtang Butskhrikidze
executiveYes. Thank you, Sergey, for this question. I will answer the first part of this question, and Giorgi, will try to answer the second part. So, yes, Sergey, you're right that for the Georgia it's very important elementary elections, which we will have in Georgia in October. But on the other hand, as we had in our presentation, economy is doing very well. The first half of this year, the real GDP growth was 9%, and we upgraded our growth for the total for 2024 from 6.4% to 7.4%. So on that side, we feel very comfortable level. And as always, when the elections are coming, there will volatility, you understand the political reality, volatility will be but fundamentals are very strong. If you take any kind of the micro, fundamentals are strong. We upgraded our real GDP growth forecast. And we don't forecast that cost of risk will grow up during the second part of the 2024.
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveOkay. Thanks, Vakhtang. And I'll take it from here. As Vakhtang mentioned, we are kind of not changing our baseline. It's even stronger. We see a very big growth in portfolio, as seen in our numbers. Customer behavior not changing, at the moment they are getting better. Our NPL is going down. Therefore, there is no reason or no science at the moment like that there is some stress [indiscernible]. Of course, we have all the scenarios, and we are ready for all scenarios but at the moment, that's not the case. And we do expect our cost of risk to continue to perform strongly. So probably Q2 is a bit exception of, of course, the one that I mentioned. We drive kind of guide markets generally for Georgia through the cycle normalized cost of risk at around 1%. We have been below that for the last few quarters on kind of without one-off. And we do expect also to be a bit below of this level in the following quarter. So I don't think we will get there. So for the next few quarters, that's our actual expectations. And generally, in midterm through the cycle, 1% is a good number to take for, let's say, medium term but [ modeling. ]
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. That's helpful. And then the second question is regarding Uzbekistan. Could you comment a little bit on competitive dynamics there? Because obviously, you guys are a strong player, but there's -- I'm sure there's other players even outside of the country that may be coming in or local players that are ramping up consumer lending. It would be helpful to get a bit of a context of where you stand versus maybe some of your stronger competitors? And what are you seeing in terms of specifically on consumer lending? Is there anybody who's being very active there? Or is that just a blue sky and up for grabs? Just some context around competition would be useful.
Vakhtang Butskhrikidze
executiveYes. Thank you, Sergey, for this question. So I think I will try to split -- to answer this question in 2 parts. First, the population of the market of Uzbek, Uzbekistan allows us to do very well. So why? Because if you look, the pay market is underpenetrated, and this market for TBC but also for other new player or for the existed players to grow out [indiscernible], it's the first. Secondly is the economy doing very well as you have seen in our presentation, real GDP growth is 6%, and we are forecasting approximately same growth in next medium term. On the other hand, we are doing very well. We doubled our portfolio. There are competition but openly said, we are the leader in this market. And as you have seen in the presentation, quarter-by-quarter, month by month, we are increasing market shares in the micro loans. So on the market that it's today, it stands around 16%, when we begin, as you remember, our business around 4 years ago. But in addition to that, to even put ourselves stronger in the market, we are bringing new products. So before the end of this year, we will launch credit cards, which will be new, new type of the product for the Uzbek -- for the market. And probably, it will be launching about the product but in 2025, 2026 also, we are forecasting very high growth also by these new products. And also, we have in our pipeline for this year, which we have in our presentation, but also in 2025, what kind of new products, new technologies we want to bring to this new market. So to summarize, to answer on your question, the macro, the underpenetration allows us together with other players to have high growth. But in addition to that, we are the leader. We are bringing new projects, and we see ourselves more growing up in the next 2, 3, 5 years.
Unknown Analyst
analystYes, that's helpful. I kind of appreciate it. But I was kind of also hoping to get some color on competitors as well because when you -- I think when you entered the market in 2019, it was very rudimentary and the banks there were serving primarily SOEs and itself like it was a very big open space but now it's almost 5 years since then. And I'm wondering if there's anyone who you think is in a stronger position now for that could be pose any challenge? And also, I want to tag another question on that, like, do you see any signs of credit cycle in Uzbekistan turning? Is there any -- and what would be the trigger points or kind of flags that you would watch for to see if there's any downturn in economy or anything that could impact your -- in your lending and the credit cycle?
Vakhtang Butskhrikidze
executiveSo there are the existing pillars but in addition to that 2, 3 years, we see that the new players such as you know that the Hungary Group OTP made a decision to come to the market, and they bought one of the state banks in the Uzbek market. This is one of the competitors, which we have recently in that market. There is a Uzum Bank, they're growing also very fast. But compared with the existing [indiscernible] also with the new ones, we see our competitive advantages and how we could say it. So comparing market shares in the loans, in the deposits and month by month, quarter by quarter, we are increasing market shares. It means that we could compete and even after bringing the new product to the market, probably in '25, '26, we will even increase our market shares much more than we have today.
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveAnd I'll cover credit cycles, and also just a bit -- to elaborate a bit on competitors. As Vakhtang mentioned, like, the Uzbekistan market is about 70% kind of through the state banks. We have as Vakhtang already said, OTP that's in as a player, let's say more or less a universal bank. In our space, they are not many players at the moment. We have some Tajik bank, at least for BNPL, like small credit card and [indiscernible] material. Uzum is more kind of ecosystem player. It's not a financial digital ecosystems that we are. And like it's already mentioned by Vakhtang, in our initiative moment, we are almost the strongest and only player. Of course, people may come. They may join to the market, there's some room for cost to turn but we are far ahead. We have a very strong team, and we have our product pipeline, we have experienced. So we can give [indiscernible] for anyone to this. But at the moment, it's quite cut off market provides a lot of opportunity. And that also this great macro playing, we don't see any like, at the moment, anything that indicate the credit cycles, of course, cycle happens, that will happen at some point. But at the moment, there are no signs. We are building our credit underwriting existing credit under scoring systems to ensure that we can withstand any weather that may come. We have team -- experienced team who has gone through various cycles and came out very, very successfully. For example, in Uzbekistan, we do have a, let's say, NPV model that we build, and we have a very high hurdle rates there. So for example, we are building certain [indiscernible] that is providing us a great for any cycle so that we remain profitable. We can withstand it along with our credit, let's say, underwriting standards. Does that cover your questions, Sergey?
Unknown Analyst
analystYes. I guess it does to some example. But you're saying that you're -- I think you said very fast. What will help you withstand the credit cycle? Could you just recap that, please?
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveFirst of all, observing the early wallet indicators, we have a system. Second, the very strong underwriting standards, managing risk properly. Then having a plan in place if cycles happens what we are doing, how we are doing, what we are switching off? When we are switching off? So it's all like a credit risk cycle. Also, as you know, there is a let let's say, NPV model like we calculate our profitability of our loan based on this because they are 45% hurdle rate, it means that we now need to generate at least that amount of the profitability. It has a lot of facts building to it. So for example, certain credit risk pick up, we have already very good profitability building into our loans. So they can withstand certain, let's say, variations when it happens.
Unknown Analyst
analystSo you say that your -- when you originate loans in Uzbekistan, you built in 45 -- so the minimum amount of profitability to generate is 45% -- at 45% or like -- so I'm not exactly clear 45% of what, of the...
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveSo the hurdle rate when you get the NPV positive, like.
Unknown Analyst
analystThis is like internal rate of return of 45% that you're looking for it?
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveSo we are looking at loans that has profitability above 40%.
Unknown Analyst
analystAnd so if things go sour, you feel like you have a cushion because at the origination, it gives you a 45% profitability.
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveExactly. That comes on the top of our credit tax management of [indiscernible] of cycle and also having a plan if that happens what we are doing. For example, switching to, let's say, book and very quickly doing differential actions. So [indiscernible] we have gone through this a few times and manage it to be very successfully.
Unknown Analyst
analystI don't want to monopolize the call but just very quickly, I was looking at as Uzbekistan, I think the inflation there is maybe 9% or 10% or something like that. And the bank deposit rates are very high, right, in the 20% range. Why is that the case? Like why is the bank deposit rate are so high in the country?
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveAnd I also first. There a few reasons, one that [indiscernible] rate is higher. Also, it's a bit unstructured market that is being developed just lately recently. Supply is not high. It's getting higher and now we see the deposit market increase. So it's just market structure. So at the moment, it's around 25% to 27%. So that seems optically quite high, but also the loan yields are very higher, as you see, we are above 44%. However, at the moment, probably, as you can see from our slide, our cost of funding is going down. At the moment, we are diversifying our funding structure. So in addition to the customer funding, we are getting sorted, let's say, IFI fundings that are cheaper and kind of very sticky. So we are working on different directions to optimize our cost of funds. From a deposit perspective, we do expect it to take some time until they come like materially involve, we don't expect it suddenly to become very, very cheaper. But our structure the loan yields will give us comfort that, again, we are, like, committed to our profitability targets, and we don't expect into compress in kind of in the foreseeable future.
Andrew Keeley
executiveThanks, Sergey. Next up is Can Demir from Wood.
Can Demir
analystI wanted to ask a question about the cost growth in Georgia, which seems to -- I mean it has been displayed for a while, but I wanted to ask a specific question in this quarter. So the -- there seems to be -- there doesn't seem to be a connection between the Georgian inflation and the cost growth in Georgia, despite the fact that the business is more mature -- at last, more mature compared to Uzbekistan. So I was wondering if there is some upside here as the OpEx growth converges more towards inflation in the future years and you get more operating leverage out of your business?
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveCan, first of all, to start, Georgia and cost growth, as I recall correctly, was around 14%. So that's more or less our business growth that follows it. The inflation like there was 0, like for [indiscernible] 0 or 3%, it's very difficult when the business scale is growing to, for example, maintain the same growth. It depends on business, for example, when you issues more loans, made more income, just more bonuses to staff. You may need more selling points. So there's a lot of things to be going. Also, we are, let's say, enhancing our business capabilities. It's not only on technology side, but on a different sides. So we are, in Georgia, it's very mature, very strong. But again, there is a lot of different things that we are doing that will ensure its Georgian business also is [indiscernible] long term, let's say, sustainability. So from this perspective, like it's -- as I mentioned, is more or less aligned with the revenue growth. Is there any room to kind of moderate in future? [indiscernible] probably, yes, there's more room as we go over time, probably not in '24, but it will be difficult to be aligned with 3% inflation to our growth when business is growing 10% or more.
Can Demir
analystOkay. Got it. So maybe some room for operating leverage, but not necessarily possible to grow OpEx 3%. Okay. No, that makes sense.
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveThe I can exactly -- I can say straight away.
Can Demir
analystYes, that was unfair question, I guess. No, that makes perfect sense.
Andrew Keeley
executiveThank, Can. Okay. Next up is Charlie Gushee from Kyklos Capital.
Charlie Gushee
analystI have a broad question related to macro risk and any related operating risks for you to, and the current environment and news flow that we all see coming from Georgia. Are you running into nervous counterparties who are -- and is there any new discussion on changes to your funding or interbank transactions that, for example, might require higher collateralization on transactions or cost elements or anything else that would seem to have implications for your net interest margins going forward? And this is all stemming from macro instability that we see on the markets in Georgia.
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveAt the moment, we don't see anything, frankly. When situation started, we did daily monitoring. And I think, I start probably, let's say, internal perspective, like deposits, cash withdrawal were more than normal. Nothing really was happening. It continues. From the external funding perspective, we don't see any identical spreads or anything. You probably have, let's say, RNAs. We just signed a 150 million deal, one of the biggest financial institutions. And that was like spread was as normal. At the moment, even from intrabank credit institutions, everything is very, very normal. So I would say there's no signs that give us any comfort or anything. And as I've mentioned, of course, generally to iterate audience, we do have a few scenarios. We don't see anything. We don't think we need to use that. But if anything happens, we are ready for a few different scenarios. But there is no signs and no need for it.
Andrew Keeley
executiveThanks, Charlie. I think there's a call on the phone line. Harry, is that right?
Operator
operatorYes. We have a question from the line of Rahim Karim of Investec.
Rahim Karim
analystThree questions, if I may, from my side. The first was just around noninterest income in the quarter. It showed quite strong momentum Q-on-Q. I think some of that was FX related. Could you perhaps just elaborate a little bit on what drove that and how sustainable you think that is for the rest of '24? The second question is just on the strong loan growth. You surprised me just how strong and especially in Georgia, given what's been going on. Can you perhaps just talk about how you've seen the loan following over the rest of '24? And how sustainable the strength that we've seen in the first half is? And then the third question, I think you've kind of touched on it in the answer to one of the previous questions. You moved a little bit in terms of definition for moving as far as I understand, moving from cost of deposits to cost of the fund in Uzbekistan. Can you perhaps just elaborate on why that was and what the partnerships might be able to do in terms of your long-term outlook for your cost of funding in that business?
Giorgi Megrelishvili
executiveOkay. Thank you. I'll start with the nonoperating income. On FX, it was really very strong income that was driven by volume growth, because the Georgian economy is growing very strongly as well as I assume like that earlier, there was a shorter, let's say, volatility on the FX market, the interest rates was higher than usual, and our treasury did a great job to let's say, build on this higher profitability. So how sustainable is it asset guided market. Like if you look last year profits that we generated in FX, sets our baseline, and we are going to grow from there generally. So we should expect quite a sizable growth compared to 2030, generally. So that's again, a quite sizable number. So that's on FX. On loan growth, both Vakhtang and myself mentioned, we don't see any things like, it's actually BAU business as usual. The loan growth is very strong. Q2 was particularly strong. It may moderate in Q3 and Q4. However, we do expect the loan growth to be quite strong in the coming quarter. So for a full year basis, we definitely expect to be 15% plus, maybe a higher end. So that's our expectation. So nothing to complain there as well. And as you know, in the over medium term Georgian growth, probably we keep saying it but it's -- that materializes around 10% to 12%. But for the last few years, we have 15% plus that we expect to see here as well. So on Uzbekistan, cost of funding. The first off to start that we have increased our deposit market share. We have 3% retail market share. We are doing very, very well. But we -- as on the Slide, we have a very ambitious target to increase 80% loan, that at around $1 billion portfolio in the USD terms by end of '25. So it will be very difficult to find all of these through cost of funding, and let's say, deposits. And therefore, we are enhancing our funding base through the wholesale funding. It has few strengths like local issued bonds, some funding from [ PLC ] and also leveraging our very strong partnerships with all IFIs, you may name. So we already closed 2 deals with some [indiscernible] pipeline. So we expect that to become as strong and as long term as we have for Georgia. So generally, source of funding, even if we consider the hedging costs and hedging market at the moment very active. It's like you can really get a good hedge for UZ to USD because our wholesale fund come in USD, generally comes cheaper than the customer funding. So it doesn't mean that we will switch generally to the, let's say, wholesale funding, we will retain an optimal mix that ensures the stability and like, I would say, robustness of our balance sheet. So once it continues, probably funds cost will be more like optimized. But you should not expect a huge like, I would say, savings.
Andrew Keeley
executiveThanks so much, Rahim. I don't think we have any more questions on the web. Harry, are there any more on the phone line?
Operator
operatorWe currently have no further questions on the phone line. On Zoom, we just had a written question submitted by Zoom here.
Andrew Keeley
executiveOkay, hold on. Do you have any short-term plans to acquire the Uzbekistan Bank minorities?
Vakhtang Butskhrikidze
executiveNo. And this question is shortly no. Because as we explained during our call that we see a lot of opportunities forward, 2 businesses Payme and Uzbek bank -- Uzbek Digital Bank to contain the growth. And as you see on this slide, by the way, we are forecasting minimum 80% plus growth, probably will be much higher than the 80%. So we -- our strong position is better to go deeper and to continue building very strong growth in our Payme, now payment business and Uzbek Digital bank and to go to buy minorities in other banks and to lose [indiscernible].
Andrew Keeley
executiveAnd I think also the question, also it touches upon the minorities, EBRD and IFC and whether we have any plans there in terms of buying them out, et cetera.
Vakhtang Butskhrikidze
executiveNo. I've said our local partners already beginning of [indiscernible] Georgian more for 20, 25 years , and we'll continue with [indiscernible] Uzbek operations, minimum 5 years.
Andrew Keeley
executiveThanks very much, Vakhtang. Okay. I think that's all the questions we have. Just to say thank you very much, everybody, for joining this call. We hope you found it useful. Enjoy the rest of your summers. And we'll catch up with you again in the autumn with our third quarter numbers. Thank you very much. Goodbye.
Vakhtang Butskhrikidze
executiveThank you. Bye.
Operator
operatorLadies and, this concludes today's webinar. You may now disconnect from the call. Goodbye.
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