Lion Finance Group (LSE:BGEO) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Today we're pleased to report our results for the first quarter of twenty twenty six. My name is Nyar Shakonia. I'm head of IR, and I'll moderate this call today. And we have a few speakers today on the call. I'm joined, as always, by the group CEO, Cielka Cielcewate. Also, we have our group and Bank of Georgia CFO today on the line, Georgi Shagise, who joined the group recently in March 2026. We also have Johannes Oroyan, who is the CFO of Ameriabank, our banking subsidiary in Armenia and Akakili Kokeli, our group economist, who will talk about MADRO. First, we'll kick off with a few opening remarks by Arcio, and then we'll continue with the other parts. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining the call.

0:47 We had a very interesting quarter. This time twenty years after we joined the London Stock Exchange in 2006, we went public, in fact, in front of TDRs. And in 2026, we joined PLC one hundred, as many of you may know. And that is special moment for all of us because it it kind of summarizes the the achievement over the last twenty years, but it's only a new beginning for for more to come. So as you remember who we are, we are two thirds Georgia and roughly onethree Armenia. It's not quite there, but Armenia is increasing very rapidly. We're serving about 2,700,000 retail customers and delivering close to a 30% return on equity over the last five years on average.

1:37 And we have very strong market share in Georgia of 38 and number one position in Armenia with growing market share. Could you go to the next slide? Yes. And in terms of the quarter, we had a very solid quarter. We had 14% year on year increase in our return on equity in our profitability and 27.4% return on equity, slightly down with more capital effect. Our risk remained at very low level with 2.1% NPL ratio and 0.3% cost of risk, which is well below our midterm guidance of 80 to 100 basis points.

2:26 I'm particularly happy about the balance sheet growth. We saw 23% growth of our loans, very strong in Armenia and also quite good in Georgia with end deposits growing at 17.5%. Also on revenue side, we saw strong growth in the net interest income and fee and commission income, but not so strong terms of the FX income where we see the pressures. Costs are in line more or less with the revenue, but they remain a focus, especially in an environment where the incomes are growing double digit, which is very good for our consumer franchise in both countries, also remains a focus there.

3:18 The franchise and talking of franchise quality in both countries, the NPS scores remain very high, And that underlines that our retail franchise is very strong and in corporate as well. So with this, all of this is in fact based on very strong economic performance. And that's that's why we would like to cover a few slides on the economy, and Akhakiri Koteli will will do that on the next few slides. Thank you. Thank you, Arti. Let me provide a quick update on the macroeconomic developments in our core markets, Georgia and Armenia. And let me start with growth performance.

4:04 The macroeconomic backdrop has continued to be favorable. And both countries, Georgia and Armenia, have entered 2026 on a strong footing. Preliminary Q1 growth numbers are quite strong, 9.1% year on year GDP growth in Georgia, 7.1% growth in Armenia. And services continue to be the key growth drivers in both countries. So this stronger than expected performance in the first quarter, together with demonstrated resilience of the economies, have led us to revise our full year real GDP growth forecast for 2026 to 7% for Georgia and to 6% for Armenia.

4:53 As you can see on the right hand side, the sustained strong performance of these two economies combined with a positive medium term outlook have positioned Georgia and Armenia among the top performing economies in the broader region and distinguished by significant advantage in income per capita levels compared to our intermediate peers. The recent escalation in The Middle East have introduced downside risks, mainly through higher energy prices and transport disruptions. However, the impacts on Georgia and Armenia have so far been muted due to limited direct macroeconomic exposure to the region, also resilient and diversified external inflows and sound macroeconomic policies.

5:48 Furthermore, we, in the scenario of prolonged conflict, we see upsides in terms of increased strategic relevance of the Middle Corridor as well as possible redirection of tourism and capital to South Caucasus. Currency performance have been also very strong despite regional geopolitical tensions. As you see on the left hand side, in contrast with previous episodes of stress, Georgian lari and Armenian drum have remained broadly stable, underpinned by strong macroeconomic fundamentals and prudent policies, we expect currency stability will persist in the future as the economies remain resilient and policies remain agile.

6:36 The main area where we have seen the impact of the Middle East escalation is inflation. Higher fuel prices have added to existing food price pressures and have pushed inflation higher in both countries. We expect the headline inflation numbers will remain elevated throughout the year before returning to the central bank's 3% targets gradually as the supply side pressures ease. The monetary policies remain prudent in both countries. Yesterday, National Bank of Georgia raised the refinancing rate by 25 basis points, reinforcing its commitment to keeping inflation expectations in check. We expect the monetary policy in Georgia will remain moderately tight throughout the year. In Armenia, the Central Bank has kept the refinancing rate unchanged at 6.5% since the beginning of the year. However, recently their communication has become more hawkish, so we don't rule out the possibility that we may see some modest tightening over the year.

7:44 The central banks have been also very active in reserve accumulation also in the beginning of twenty twenty six. The gross international reserves had reached $6,300,000,000 Georgia and $5,500,000,000 in Armenia by the end of March. And in both countries, the reserves remain above the International Monetary Fund's minimum adequacy thresholds, reinforcing macroeconomic resilience in both countries. Another key pillar for macroeconomic stability is fiscal discipline, and Georgia and Armenia have been very consistent in this area. The government debt to GDP ratio continues to come down in Georgia as fiscal deficits are kept at 2.5% of GDP.

8:35 In Armenia, the government has been very successful in balancing elevated spending needs with fiscal sustainability objectives. And despite elevated fiscal deficits, they have kept the public debt to GDP ratio more or less stable. This year we expect the fiscal policy will remain growth supportive, mostly through sustained capital expenditure. And lastly, the financial sectors, banking sectors in both countries remain sound, supported by strong lending expansion, historically low levels of loan dollarization, and solid capital buffers. So that's all on my side. Back to you. Thank you. Thank you, Akati.

9:20 We'll now have Georgi Shakise cover the main developments at the Georgian Financial Services. You're you're on mute. Please unmute yourself. Apologies for this. Good afternoon, everyone, and I'm very pleased to join my first Lion Finance Group result call, and I look forward to seeing many of you on the future occasions.

10:09 Let me start with the summary of GFS. It was another quarter of very strong results. You can see from the slide that profit grew by 11.6%, reaching $452,000,000 with the return on equity of 31.5%. The book year on year grew by 17.8%. This happened on the back of 0.54% cost of risk and 2% NPLs. Deposit book grew by 13%, and retail monthly active customers and retail digital monthly active users reached two point two million and one point nine million respectively.

10:57 This slide summarizes our award winning financial super app. Maybe what I can summarize or highlight here is 52.7% digital very active users and 88% of all loans granted from our digital channels. Both results are one of the best in the industry. On the bottom left hand side, what we have here is how our customers are giving the as the ratings with the CSAT being at 93% with the very prestigious awards from global finance naming us world's best digital event in the second consecutive year, along with another prestigious award in innovation in AI in the region.

11:50 The next slide summarizes our digital ecosystem in business, and just like in our retail, here too the numbers are quite impressive with 108,000 digital monthly active users and 83.5 digital monthly active users as a percentage of monthly active customers. Here too, on the bottom left hand side, we see the Apple Store and Google Play customer ratings being as high as they actually get. In terms of the payments business, our acquiring volume of payment transactions grew by 19.7% year on year. The quarter over quarter decrease is mostly seasonal.

12:45 And now we are enjoying the market share of 56.9%. We have 26,700 POS terminals, which is about 17% year on year growth. And in terms of issuing, our year on year number grew by 12.2%. In terms of NPS, the NPS reached 75%, which again is one of the best in the industry. And this is the reflection of the bank's customer centric culture, as well as in investment in people and in technology. Loan book during the period grew by 17.5%.

13:36 The growth was across the board, but then the higher growth was in consumer loans and in corporate loans. The dollarization of loan book broadly remained stable. Quarter over quarter growth was 3.6% and that's happened with our margins also growing by about 30 basis points. In terms of deposit portfolio, it grew by 12.6% year on year, mostly in retail and in corporate deposits, and that also supported the utilization of the deposit book. This is a lifeline from my part. It's about capital and liquidity position. In both metrics, we enjoy very comfortable buffers with the capital buffer being at 2.5 percentage points, and in liquidity position, our LCR stood at 140% with our NSFRS being at 130%.

14:49 Thank you, Nini. Thank you, Georgi. And now I would like to ask Juanes to continue with the review of the Armenian financial services performance for the quarter. Thank you, Nini, and good afternoon, everyone. I am very much delighted to present you the results of our operations for the Q1. As already mentioned, we have had a very strong performance for the first quarter. As you can see, our profit grew 35% year over year to reach 129,000,000 Georgian nares. Return on equity was 21.8%. Particularly, as Arthur mentioned, the growth of loan book and deposit base was very positive. Indeed, we had 34.6% growth in constant currency basis for loan book and almost 30% for deposit base.

15:43 At the same time, we continue to improve our position in terms of coverage of the market. We are we have grown our number of customers, monthly active users, by more than 33%, and digital MAU has grown more than 47% to reach 362,000. Indeed, while the growth pace is very, very impressive, we're still less than half a million, so there's still much bigger opportunities for growth in this area, and we're going to be continuing this expansion as well. Just like DOG, we continue to invest heavily into our digital propositions. Our applications are being enhanced with a lot of new functionalities and products.

16:31 And a number of improvements based on the analysis of the customer usage are being done. But I want to highlight our loyalty program that we launched last quarter, and we see very positive traction with our loyalty program and Beyond Banking propositions that are integrated into our mobile application. And both of the applications for adults and for kids are very important tools for us, also in terms of financial education and financial literacy improvement in the country. And as you can see from the bottom numbers, not only we were able to grow our customer base by more than one third every year, but also the depth and digital usage of these customers is growing up.

17:17 Our online banking penetration has reached 83.7%. That is almost five percentage point increase year over year. Digital MAO to MAO ratio has increased by 7.2 percentage points to reach 73%. And MAODAU ratio, DAUMAO ratio is at 44%, again, with 2.5 percentage point improvement. In terms of growth of our portfolios, as mentioned, our loans grew more than 34% year over year and 6.2% during the first quarter. While both segments have been very active and positive in terms of growth, the corporate sector grew a bit faster and that's where we see that the share of FX denominated loans has slightly increased during the Q1.

18:09 On the deposit side, again, very high loyalty to our franchise, almost 30% growth of the deposits year over year and almost 6% growth for the Q1. Here we see further increase of the share of AMD denominated deposits and that has to do with increased number of the customer base. Naturally, we have been we continue to improve our market share. Our market share by loans has reached 22%. That is 1.7 percentage point growth year over year. And for deposits, we have improved our market position by one percentage point year over year to reach 19.5%.

18:55 In terms of capital position, as many of you have probably heard, we have issued our first ever AT1 notes locally worth $50,000,000 8.5% coupon in within six days, actually, in February. And that has improved our capital position. As you can see, we have roughly 1.5% headroom over the CBL requirements. At the same time, we do we have also announced the second tranche of 81 notes, again, million USD at 8% coupon that are supposed to be located locally as well. This will enhance our capital structure and give us more flexibility in terms of being able to nurture further growth.

19:49 In terms of liquidity, we continue to be positively well above the regulatory requirements. LCR stands above 200% and NSFR is above 125%. So, both of these figures are giving us relevant comfort for our operations. This is on the Armenian side of the business. Thank you, Voines. And now I will hand over to Archie for a few financial highlights and also the wrap up. It's a hard act to follow when you're talking about 35% increase of loan book and 40 plus percent increase in retail number of monthly active users, but I'll try. I'll try my best. So so here we go. So those are some of the numbers that we already discussed, but our operating income was up by 15%.

20:55 Net interest income show the strong things up week of about 18.4. Net noninterest income was slightly subdued. And there, when you look at the details, we had pretty strong net gain commission income growth year over year in both markets, in fact. In Georgia, it was partly due to the fact of our new deal with the system operators. And in Armenia, we had one M and A transaction, but it was not a major one, it was EUR 5,000,000 out of EUR 30,000,000, as you can see there. In the net effects, it remained low like we guided previously that we don't have much volatility in both markets. In fact, other markets don't have much volatility as well as slight uptick in the competition as well. So we see pressure on the FX, but all the other parts of the business have been doing very well.

21:57 Operating expenses, I mentioned, were less than the revenue growth. So we had positive operating growth. In Georgia, it was slightly higher, 16.6%. In Romania, it was lower, but it was partly due to the fact that in the base effect, we had the amortization of the sign up bonus previously, which we no longer do. So that is helping the numbers. Cost income ratio remained just below 35% where it belongs. And then going forward, let's see, but that's the objective. In terms of the loan growth, we said in detail already, 23% growth and 17.5% in deposits, and Armenia really stood out with very strong numbers, as you can see. But Georgia also, I mean, when the market grows about 14%, we go 17.8%, we're happy with that.

22:56 And what we saw in terms of the net margin, although it was flat, we've had the slower margin in Armenia and higher margin in Georgia. In Armenia, we had slight uptick in the cost of funding as well as the lower yields on the overall portfolio, mainly due to the fact that the first part, which is funding, we increased the proportion of the Armenian drum, which is almost by default more expensive than U. S. Dollars as well as issuance of Tier one. So all of this is Tier one is marginal here because it was at the end of this second quarter. But there are other debt issuances on the sub debt side that also affected.

23:45 And in terms of the loan yield, were several large issuances of corporate loans, which put a little bit of pressure on that. Going forward, we believe it should be flattish in Armenia. In Georgia, we did what we promised, which was pushed down the deposit price, and that was about 10 basis points and deployed more liquidity, which we are flushed with, and that was another 20 basis points. So that's the 30 basis points that you see there. All in all, as a group were flat. And in terms of the loan yields, not much to say there. Cost of risk remain at low levels of 0.3%, and you see the distribution of where it's coming from, not much to add there other than the fact that our midterm guidance is 80 to 100 basis points.

24:35 And we are happy to see that for a number of years, we'll be remaining at very low levels due to higher than medium term expectation of growth in both markets. In fact, I mean, it's remarkable. The last five years, we've been growing about 9% more or less the real growth plus nominal growth and plus local currency getting stronger versus U. Dollar. Loan quality remains very solid with low number of NPL at 2.1% and solid coverage. And all of this resulted in profits growing by 14% year over year, return on equity of 27.4 percent and return on average assets, which is something we closely watch at almost 4%.

25:27 This wraps up the ops sorry. Oh, wrap up. Yes. There are a couple of slides. I apologize. So in in in in the wrap up, I would like to say that we are announcing the capital distribution of $177,000,000 of that 122,000,000 will be distributed as dividends and about $55,000,000 will be invested in our own stock. That means PLN 2.85 per share for the first quarter only. Lastly, we moved to this quarterly dividends from the third quarter onwards. So there's no direct comparison, but we're definitely in our own inside comparison, are increasing the dividends on the mid teens level roughly.

26:17 And you see number of shares declining over the last few years as we deploy about onethree roughly of our usual distribution in share buybacks. We guide 15% annual book growth. And as you can see, over the last five years, we've mostly other than 2022 remained well above that, and we're continuing that. And in fact, growth accelerated here. Return on equity is at 27% and with higher and higher capital ratios, in fact. And in terms of distribution, we're on the low side of our range that we guided, 1315%, and that is to build up the capital buffers and finance higher than expected growth impact. So that's how it's going.

27:07 And with this, let me pass it back to Mimi Thank you, actually. For the q and a, which is usually the most interesting part of of our quarterly. We're ready to take questions. And I see a few raised hands already from our analysts. The first raised hand is from Shil Shah from JPMorgan. Hi, Shil. Hi. Thanks a lot, guys, for the presentation. Two questions from my side. Firstly, on the margins. I know that you said Armenia to be flattish from from from here on. It'll be good to get an understanding of some moving parts because it looks like there is maybe some increased competition or maybe increase in the the local currency deposits, which which could could continue to maybe weigh on the NIM going forward.

27:59 And on the Georgian side as well, clearly, have the rate hike from two days ago, and your previous guidance of flattish NIM with two rate cuts, as you previously said. So it'd be interesting to get your outlook on the Georgian NIM as well. And then secondly, on costs, Georgian costs are running at 17%, you know, much higher than inflation. I know that you've been running at that same a very similar level last year as well, but it'll be interesting to get an understanding of where you're using these costs. You know, what why are the costs so high? What are you investing in? And and and should we expect that to normalize lower going forward? Is is this the run rate we should expect going forward? Thanks.

28:50 Why don't I start with the Georgian side and then I'll pass over to Johannes to talk about NIM in Armenia. So in Georgia, NIM should remain around, you know, flattish, I would say. So when when the movements in the refinancing rate, obviously, higher financing rate is marginally better for us. So we could have a little bit of back wing there and see where we go to, but I would not expect a major change in there. One thing which is clear for us is that we've announced that we want to stay on the 40% market share in terms of deposits. There's an extra capital requirement of 50 basis points associated with being above that ratio, and we would like to get capital efficiency there, obviously, as well as it's a guidance from the regulator not to go above that, about 40% for too long.

29:53 And in terms of the cost, you're absolutely right that the inflation is lower. But one thing we should we should we should pay more attention to, I guess, is is the average income levels in the country. So although inflation in terms of the cost of, you know, the the the inflation definition is is one thing. But mostly, what our costs are is is is people. And and and the inflation of of labor costs have have remained double digit in Georgia, single digit in Armenia. Right? So I think that's that's what's waiting on on the cost side. On on the Georgian side, we can definitely say that we'll be looking at neutral to positive operating jaws going forward, and that's all I can say. But I I do not expect a major change in in that unless we see the environment changing, I. E, the growth of the economy and the average income is coming down. But it's it's back there, but it's really good on the consumer credit side.

31:02 We're a dominant bank, and we've been benefiting from substantial increases there without having any uptick in the cost of risk. So it's it's the two sides of the same coin, but overall, very positive there. Johannes, any any words on Yes. Sure. On the R and D side of the NIM, I think it will be fair to say that we shall expect slight recovery of NIM. And there, as I should mention, a few factors. One, the proportion of local currency and foreign currency, that is a factor that we presume will be there. So with the round being very, very stable and strong, we see more and more depositors of customers remaining towards our mean in the round.

31:52 At the same time, to all our other effects, indeed, the distribution of AT1 notes that are in assets capital instruments, they are not leveraged yet and they have higher impact on the cost side will be leveled out closer to the end of the year. And second is the fractions of funds from DFIs and subordinate debt that we borrowed end of Q4 twenty twenty five. So technically, especially in January and February, we have been very over liquid. We have increased our capital offer significantly with subordinated debt. And over time, with the growth pace that we have already shown in Q1, this is going to be utilized. So in terms of efficiency, it's going to come down.

32:41 It's gonna improve our needs slightly. So I would say towards the q, three, and four, there should be some partial recovery of NIM on the army business. Sheila, I guess you don't have any further questions, so we'll move to the next questions. Sorry, let me quickly. The next question is from Jens Ehrenberg. So I'll let him speak. Cool. Thanks, Nini. Can you hear me alright? Yes, perfect.

33:26 Cool. Thank you very much guys for the presentation and congrats on a quite outstanding quarter up to you with the performance and the 4,100 inclusion grade to see. Just a couple from my side. Firstly, on the outlook for the sort of FX revenue line, I appreciate it's a tricky one to forecast. If we look at the quarter, we'll see there's been a lot less FX volatility than we've seen previously. Is that sort of 130,000,000 level that you've delivered in the quarter, is that a level you would assume normal if there's not too much FX volatility? And then secondly, just taking into account your persistent overall loan book growth coupled with what is still really, really good credit quality and very low cost of risk. How do we think about that going forward? Do you think that sort of credit quality will eventually see a bit of an impact from that strong growth? And then last one is for Johannes, if that's all right. I appreciate if you'll give me a very diplomatic answer.

34:35 But just on the digital uptake in Armenia, appreciate we got lots of headroom to grow here. Again, this quarter, impressive growth rate in terms of the uptake there. How much longer do you think those growth rates will be sustained until there's some sort of normalization on do you think, well, it's that successful, you'll see that persist for the near future? Sorry, there's a couple of things in there, but thank you very much. In terms of FX alone on Georgian side, let me take it. So on the FX side, you asked for the overall numbers. And probably, it's fair to assume that those are the numbers of low volatility. And unless anything changes strongly, then those are the numbers that we would expect. Having said that it's an environment where, you know, there are many many many things that affect our our numbers.

35:39 In terms of the loan growth versus quality, yes, we've been growing, and the quality of the loans have remained benign. One thing that affects it is is high growth. And over the last five years, our tool, both of the countries have benefited from a very strong growth, high inflation at some point as well, but now it's more moderated, but still above the target. Until we have that, I think we will enjoy good quality of of the of the loan book because we have not changed the changed the under underwriting standards in any way, in fact. So so so all the growth that you see there is is not because we've become more tolerant to the risk, but rather because of the economy is going well and because of us increasing the the quality of interaction with the clients.

36:35 And in terms of the midterm guidance, so the cost of risk, you you you know that's that's about double of what we see in terms of cost of risk right now over the last few years. So there, we don't expect that until the economy slow down. Now will the economy slow down depends on many different things, but we have this idea of the the legal corridor, which is actually becoming very real more and more. There's there's conflicts on the North Side, South Side. So more and more Europe and and and and Central Asia, in fact, and increasingly China is interested in this corridor being there and being real as an alternative to some of the other corridors that exist, not that we'll replace all the others that would be that will not be realistic, but rather the alternative to exist to all the other transportation groups. And that means that there will be a lot of investment going in in the infrastructure and then supporting supporting businesses as well. So that could impact provide a medium to long term good growth numbers for both countries for for, I would say, you know, for for two decades, but definitely five, ten years. And that's that's say something.

37:57 So with Armenian growth, maybe, Johannes? Yeah. Sure. I want to take off on the point that Arjun made. I mean, indeed, our economies are performing pretty good. And as you remember, last year, we're seeing that especially in Armenia, are several large projects that could really have significant impact on the overall macroeconomic performance of the country. Likewise, a few days ago in Armenia, we had a huge first ever Armenian EU Summit where maybe you've heard most of the EU leaders have arrived and a number of mutual agreements and declarations have been signed. That could be another significant boost to the economy. So events happening around the country possess significant positive upside risk or potential for microcurrent development, and that's potentially going to fuel our growth further.

38:53 In terms of digital uptake and increase of the number of customers, Indeed, we were able to grow our customer base by, on average, 34% for the last few years. And at the same time, we do expect to continue this expansive growth for the next two, three years at least. Where we're going to end up, I think we are looking at our partners in Georgia. We are still far behind in terms of utilization of the local potential. And we believe and hope that we're going to be able to at least match the achievements that Georgian peers have in their respective market. So and again, the traction speaks for itself.

39:42 MAUs and DAOs are growing from 45 to 55% every year for the last three years. And we expect similar pace. I mean, going to be very difficult to continue 50% growth every year, but it's we we expect to have similar growth in the next two, three years. On the monthly active users, yes. But on the balance sheet, you'll probably moderate. I mean, you can't can't grow 50%. Yeah. On balance on balance sheet, yes. I mean, it's gonna be much lower. We have been growing again slightly more than 30% for the last couple of years, and we would expect to have some moderation there.

40:28 Super. Now that's understood. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Jan. The next question comes from Dmitry Vasov from Udendco. Congrats on strong quarter. I have a follow-up question on costs specifically for Armenia. So could you remind me what the potential here in terms of the cost to income? It's interesting to say that costs in Armenia, specifically in labor, grow slower. Maybe I'm just wondering if there is a risk that they could accelerate at some point. Thank you. In reality, do not think we are going have acceleration of the labor costs in Armenia.

41:16 Indeed, as Arjun mentioned in the presentation, these costs are moderate also due to the signing bonus arrangements that were there up until last year, and it's not there anymore. Indeed, when we look at our cost to income ratio, we have declared it earlier that eventually we also want to push our cost to income ratio down. Our target is to keep it below 40% in the midterm. But if you look at 2025, 'twenty six have been years where we have been investing significantly into our infrastructure development. Whilst having the largest loan portfolio in the country for more than ten years, our footprint branch network is very, very limited.

42:08 So last year, we opened four additional branches. This year, we are opening five new branches that will offload some of the branches that we have and improve the service quality within the branches. And while, as I mentioned, our online banking penetration is more than 87%, our branches serve less than 1% of all the operations that we do, we feel that slightly more branches will improve overall to meet our customer needs. Other than that, other than these investments into infrastructure development, there should not be any unforeseen increases in labor costs whatsoever.

42:53 So, hopefully, 07/2028, we'll see the cost of income costincome ratio coming down. Thank you very much, Christian. Thank you, Dmitry. The next raise hand is from Ben Meyer. Hi, Ben. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. So two quick ones. The first one is, again, on asset quality. Obviously, there's another quarter of good performance in that area. I appreciate the tensions in The Middle East can have a bit of a lag effect on credit quality. Just interested on how the metrics have performed in April and in the first week of May.

43:41 And then my second question is just on M and A. You delivered a 27% return on tangible equity during the quarter. Obviously, it's a very high bar in terms of potential M and A targets you can look for and if you're benchmarking that against the ROI of a potential acquisition. So I'm still wondering if you're seeing any targets that offer those kind of returns or you're still quite happy just to redeploy everything back into the business? Thank you. I'll take those. So in terms of the some negative signs of on the credit quality side, we don't see any major we don't expect any major changes, in fact. So it's definitely we are seeing higher slightly higher inflation, and that may have some effect. But overall, the fourth quarter, including March numbers in Georgia came very strong in thirty nine years also.

44:36 We we increased the economic prediction for the for the full year for the real bills. So we don't expect any change in terms of the credit quality of our portfolio. In terms of what was the second question again? The Just on M and A, just you're obviously delivering the business is delivering very good profitability. So it's just Yeah. In terms of m and a there, that this it's very difficult to find a combination of of a case where you have real growth of 9% and and the stable currency and and the corporate governance that we have in in both countries. So it's on that, it will be difficult to to to repeat. Having said that, there are some very interesting markets in South East Eastern Europe and and and Central Asia, and we are looking for for for our position targets.

45:41 Having said that, we'll be always deciding in terms of what's best on how to deploy the capital, is it with the acquisition or buying our own stock. So that's the benchmark that we'll be using to decide to go or not to go in different markets. But yes, there are not many markets that are delivering similar kind of returns with stable currency. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. I don't see any further questions at this point. Very good then.

46:26 Thank you very much for joining this results call. Another strong quarter for all of us. And more importantly, I think looking ahead, we are looking at a strong growth or at least we are expecting a strong growth in both of the economies. And as quality of the franchise remains at the highest level we have ever been historically, we are there benefit from all of this and contribute to it ways that we can. So thank you for your support and interest, and stay tuned for more news in the second quarterly results call in one quarter. Thank you, everyone, and take care. Bye bye. Bye.