Grupo Aval closed its financial year in the first three months of this year with profits of the order of 425,100 million pesos, a result 37 percent higher than that registered in the quarter of 2022, by eliminating extraordinary expenses for the sale of BHI, indicated the organization’s directives.
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These results represented a return on equity of 10.4 percent and on assets of 1.4 percent, they highlighted, while indicating that these figures occurred in an environment of slowdown in the Colombian economy.
«Grupo Aval to modify and keep its portfolio quality indicators and cost of risk stable thanks to the structure of its portfolio«, they specified
Indeed, according to the figures reported by the financial conglomerate, the total portfolio grew 16.6 percent in the last twelve months ended March 31, 2023 (1.2 percent during the first quarter of the year).
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In this sense, the directives highlight that the consumer portfolio rebounded 15.8 percent, the commercial 16.6 percent and the mortgage 20.1 percent.
Regarding the quality of the Guarantee portfolio, the one over 30 days has increased 21 basic points and the quality of the portfolio over 90 days improved 9 basic points.
For his part, total deposits grew 16.8 percent in the last twelve months to March 31, 2023 (2.9 percent in the first quarter).
«Annual GDP growth for the first quarter of 2023 was 3 percent, and the remaining three quarters are expected to show lower growth, to the extent that the sectors of the economy that have boosted the dynamics of the GDP in previous quarters lose momentum and do not contribute in the same proportion, in the remainder of the year,» warn the group’s directives.
They added that in April, annual inflation finally broke the upward trend that it had been registering for two years, and therefore, If this new downward trend continues, it is conceivable that contractionary monetary policy will have reached its peak and that rates will begin to gradually decline.
According to what was reported by Grupo Aval for that first stage of the year, income from the non-financial sector increased 26.7 percent during the quarter and 14 percent compared to the same period last year.
Faced with this, the analysts of Grupo Bancolombia indicated that the results of Grupo Aval for the quarter in question «were positive and reflected a notable improvement compared to the quarter of 2022, a period negatively impacted
due to the effect of the participation in the takeover bid by BHI, the contraction in the interest margin, the increase in provisions and a lower contribution from the non-financial business».
They also indicated that the contribution of the financial sector did not gain traction again. Revenues associated with this business reached 1.6 trillion pesos, with notable growth attributed to a greater contribution from the energy and gas business (+115.6 percent quarterly) and infrastructure (+14.7 percent), Inter alia.
* The company Grupo Aval is part of the business group that controls the company Casa Editorial EL TIEMPO.