Hi everyone, and welcome to Lion Finance Group's conference call. My name is Nini Arshakuni. I'm Head of Investor Relations. Today we'll present and discuss the group's financial results for the Q2 and the H1 of 2022. Group CEO Archil Gachechiladze will start with an overview of the group's performance, and then we will take your questions. Please be aware that this call is being recorded, and if you'd like to ask questions, you can use the Raise Hand feature in Zoom or the Q&A chat. If you are dialing in, you can press star 9 to raise your hand, and then you'll be able to ask your questions. Now I'm handing over to Archil.
Thank you very much, Nini. Welcome to our Q2 results call. I think you may have seen already that it is an extraordinary numbers that we've had in our Q2, which is a record by many different lines and as well as a combined net profit of roughly $100 million in the Q2. With that, let me dive in and touch on a number of things regarding the macro performance, because I think a great deal of this performance and increases is also due to macroeconomic strong performance. After that, we'll go into discussing some of the numbers of the company.
On the macroeconomic side, the Q2 real economic growth has been estimated at 7.2%, which brought the H1 real growth to 10.5%. With that, which is way ahead of some of the predictions early in the year. The beginning Q3 performance of 14.9% was due to a lower base last year because of the lockdown in 2021 Q1. Overall, 10.5% is a very good number. It's driven by very strong remittances and tourist and immigration flows, as you know, from the neighboring countries. Also exports have performed very well as well. Overall, very strong performance all around.
What that has caused is that we have updated our estimate for 2022 to 9.2%. In fact, Fitch has just published an estimate for 2022 number of 10.9%. The World Bank and other IFIs are still projecting 5.5%, but I think that number will be updated to high single digit, if not low double digit number for real growth for this year. Next year, we estimate growth, real growth of 5%, which is reflected what you see there on the chart. Overall, very strong performance versus the region and other peer countries. Georgia is experiencing high inflation like most of the world.
In June number was 12.8%, and July number was 11.5%, so slightly lower. But the core inflation was 5.8% and 7.1%. Overall, I think there's still inflation impulses are high. That's why the tight monetary policy that the National Bank of Georgia is implementing right now, as you can see that the financing rate is at 11%, will probably stay longer than we originally anticipated. At the end of the year, our estimate of inflation is 9.5%, which we estimate will bring the average inflation for the year of 11.7%.
All in all, I think this year we are experiencing a nominal growth of above 20%, which is really an extraordinary performance for the Georgian economy. Lari has been strengthening over this period of time, over the last few months. From the beginning of the year, Lari has strengthened by 12%. You may recall that we have been talking about Lari being oversold last year, and that has stabilized now. As you can see, it's in fact a little bit stronger than the long-term trend. It's only to reflect some of the shifts that have been happening in the economy as a result of geopolitical turbulence in the region.
You see that there's also some logistical and transport corridors are being rerouted towards South Caucasus, which will have a long-term positive impact for Georgia. There will be investments going into transport corridor of different types of logistical ports and logistical centers and so forth, because right now as this corridor was underutilized, in fact. Right now it's grossly overutilized, and we are experiencing delays in on this corridor because there's so much demand for the cargo to go through this corridor, South Caucasus corridor, I mean. This will have a positive impact on for medium-term for Georgia because there will be investment going in that way. Now let's discuss some of the numbers company-specific numbers.
As you know, we, the retail bank is composed of mass retail premium and MSME, and there I think our leadership is strengthened. I'll touch on different numbers as we go forward. The strategic focus is presented here, and let me go one by one what our progress has been. The mobile bank and iBank for individuals, our number of monthly active users is up by 31% year-on-year, and it's getting close to 1 million number. As a proportion of our monthly active users, but not digital, the overall monthly active users that do business with us, which is not presented here, but it's also up by more than 10% to 1.5 million.
Our digitally active, monthly active users to total clients, total active clients is 64%, which is a significant growth of 8% versus last year. That makes us quite happy that we see that trend of our customers becoming more and more digitally active. In terms of number of transactions, the mobile and iBank, and it's predominantly mobile, is up by 57%, which is also quite strong growth. In terms of the MAU to DAU, daily active users to monthly active users, that's almost 46%. For any financial app, in fact, to have so much daily interaction, is a very good number. In fact, 46%.
That is important for us to have daily interaction with our banks, with our customers, so that the stickiness is and the franchise value is stronger that way. The overall number of transactions was up by almost 33%. As we described previously, our mobile and Internet Bank users were up by 57%. That basically means that the more and more people are doing banking with their mobile phones, and that has become 54% of total transactions. You see that other channels are not growing as fast as mobile, which is very good for us.
That shows that mobile is a very comfortable way of doing it, and people are finding it easier and easier to do more of their banking using their mobile phones. In terms of product offloading, we were at 33.8%, which is slightly short of our guidance of 36%, which was for June 2022. In fact, in July, we're slightly above 36%. That was due to the fact that we tightened the consumer loan underwriting as we were seeing high inflation, especially on the subprime segment. That is a highly digital product. As that was limited slightly, that reduced slightly the automation, but overall very close to the target.
Our business Internet Bank and mobile bank has shown a significant increase in quality. Customer satisfaction score of our Internet Bank for our business customers has gone from 64%. It's an internal measure, but you know when you are doing it too versus the previous time it shows the progress. It shows the progress that we've integrated a lot of feedback that we get from our customers into the product development. Over the last one year, we've seen a significant increase in the quality of our product.
We are also seeing addition of monthly active users to our internet and mobile bank for business, which is 31% and 39%, 9.5% accordingly, which is very strong numbers, as you can see. Something which is very significant, in my opinion, and really reflects the strength of our franchise is also our payments franchise, which in the volume terms, we have seen 63% increase in our POS terminals. In physical POS terminals, our market share is 52%. When you combine it with the e-commerce, it's roughly about 50%, which I think by any measure is a very strong position. The overall volume is growing very well.
In fact, I think we are contributing to making the economy more digital and cashless with our new products and the good coverage of our POS terminals throughout Georgia with merchants. Our NPS was broadly stable, but slightly down from 55, 54, 52. Overall, as you can see, the long-term trend is up. The slightly down was due to increased volume of flow in the branches due to more activity of remittances and immigration from the neighboring countries. We have taken measures to make sure that the flows are smoother and it's fine now, so we should see that trend restarts to grow again.
Now regarding some of the monetary numbers, because most of what we have described now is what is the basis for some of the figures that we will talk about. Here are some good numbers that we've been fortunate to have in the Q2 and H1 of 2022. Something that I believe is noteworthy is it's the Q1 where we have seen return on equity higher than cost-to-income, as one of the analysts have highlighted, and I hope that this will not be the last quarter to see those things. We'll see. In terms of the operating income, it's in the quarter, it's up year-on-year of 47.7%, and on a half-year basis, almost 40%.
Non-interest income, which was even higher by roughly 100%, and for the H1 of the year, 70%. Expenses were also grew 32%, so it's not a small number, but still way lower than the overall revenue number, and half-year basis was 30%. Some of it was due to acceleration of expenses when we have done basically two senior directors have left us as we have announced to the market. The way IFRS has done is basically that all the unvested shares are expensed in the quarter when that kind of change happens. Partly that, and partly some of the other changes.
Overall, I think the expenses still grew strong, but I think given the inflationary environment, it was nothing unusual. Cost-income ratio has gone down to 32.5%, well below our medium-term target of 35%. For the H1 of the year was 33.6%. In fact, some of you may recall that when we were discussing the yearly results, last year results, we were predicting this year to have negative operating jaws given the inflationary environment. Obviously the revenue performance has been even stronger than the cost increases. This is what we are seeing.
In terms of before going to balance sheet items, in fact, something that we closely monitor, and maybe we should put this in the presentation, is our performance of a pre-provision level, which, for the half of the year was 46%, I think. Yes, 46%. But for the quarter, the pre-provision was up by 60%. That shows a very significant growth of the business, as you can see. This is in Lari terms, and obviously because Lari has performed better in Dollar terms, it's even stronger. Now, in terms of the balance sheet, item growth.
The loan portfolio grew by 10%, but to show you the business really is in constant currency basis is probably a better measure, is 17.8%. QOQ was 4.3%, which is higher than our medium-term guidance. Given the strong nominal growth in the economy, that's still the economy is deleveraging, in fact, because it's still lower than the nominal growth of the economy. Deposits had a very decent growth of 16% year-on-year, and 9.1% again in constant currency terms. In terms of net interest margin, we were flat QOQ and up by 60 basis points year-over-year, and happy to dive in if there are any questions there.
loan yields and deposits you can see. In terms of cost of credit risk ratio, we registered 60 basis points for Q2 2022. For H1 year, it was 0.7%, which is closer, it's getting closer to long-term guidance of roughly 1% that we have, especially on the retail side. In corporates, we are seeing some recovery, and we'll see how that goes. We may see some more recoveries, in fact, in corporate. Overall, I think we are getting closer to the normalized level as the time is progressing. We are seeing on the NPL level, largely flat, as well as coverage ratios, slightly down.
Overall, I think similar in terms of the long-term trend, what we have. All in all, in the summary, the net profit was up by 36% versus last year. Last year, also, we benefited from negative cost of risk, if you remember, in the Q2 2021. To show the overall business on a pre-provision level has grown by 60%. Return on equity 32.8% and 31.8% for the H1 year. Now, what's interesting is that this performance has been done with very strong capital ratios. In fact, Core Tier 1 at 14% above, 14.3% above the minimum requirement. They have similar kind of buffers on other requirements.
When we look at Basel III fully loading estimates that we have, which will happen end of next year, is not much left. Let's say it's another 30-40 basis points. We are still already with the fully loading ratios. We'll have significant buffers above that. What's interesting also, which some of the investors may not pay attention to, is that our reported National Bank standard right now is stricter than the IFRS. National Bank has announced and has taken steps to make these numbers close. In fact, we may have one reporting very soon.
From next year, we'll start reporting both numbers, and at some point, we'll just switch to IFRS, which NBG will approve. We will see roughly 2% higher Core Tier 1 ratios, which NBG has guided that they will introduce additional buffers to absorb that, so it will not be a source of additional capital. It will still be very positive because the investors, you will see that, the bank's Core Tier 1 ratio is more like 16%-17%, instead of the current 14%. Which by any IFRS comparison, in fact by peer comparison, is very healthy capital position. Our return on equity is even more pleasant to see that it's done on a very healthy capital position.
Liquidity remains strong, and we have very strong liquidity. Last year, we had too much in fact, too much, which we've normalized, but still very high liquidity overall, very healthy numbers there. The long-term targets that we have of delivering through the cycle above 20% return on equity, we are performing very comfortably well above that target. As well as roughly 10% constant currency growth. 10% portfolio growth, I apologize. Also delivering a bit more than that there. Regarding capital distribution, as you have noted, we have announced the...
We've announced the interim capital distribution of GEL 1.85 per share, as well as continuing the buyback of our stock. It's a combination of dividends and buyback, and it's only for the H1 of the year. It's an interim. As the year progresses or at the beginning of next year, we'll discuss the full year dividend on top of the interim, obviously. That's about it. Thank you very much. I don't want to take more of your time. In fact, I'm happy to answer questions. Nini, would you like to open-
We have the first question from Robert Sage.
Yes. Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes. Yes, Robert. Thank you. Please.
I've got two questions. The first relates to your very strong foreign currency gains. Clearly, I would guess they're not sustainable at the Q2 level, given the volatility in the Lari. I was wondering, if we look beyond this year, do you think there's been any structural increase in your FX gains on an ongoing basis? Or should we sort of expect they're gonna fall back to historic levels of, I don't know, GEL 100-GEL 120 or something of that order? Thank you.
Thank you, Robert. That was the first question I guess, right? Let me take that one, and then I'll wait for the second question. The FX, yeah, I agree that this.
An industry review report.
Robert, I apologize. There's a lot of noise coming in from your side. If you can mute, I can answer, and then we can go back to the question. The FX, yes, we have had a very strong number which was significantly higher than our historic performance. Some of it is due to the economic flows which have increased, which, you know, we are experiencing strong economic growth. But also we have benefited from remittances and the emigration activities that we have seen happen in the country. That may not be sustainable, but the overall increased business will be. Roughly our estimate is, you know, we will see what, you know, what numbers will come.
We think that medium term, let's say, roughly 30%-35% less should be sustainable. Having said that, some of the economic activity is still continuing. I mean, as we are halfway through the Q3, we still see very strong numbers. That doesn't look like it's going away soon. Obviously, this component, let's say one-third, roughly, very roughly, that may not be sustainable of that FX number.
Yes. Thank you for that. The second question was very simply, that you drew attention and sort of pulled out of the cost increase, that some of that related to the termination of the service agreements with two of your, senior directors. Could you just give some sort of idea of the quantification of how much that might have been in the Q2, just so that we can get a feel for the underlying cost inflation number?
There was roughly GEL 11 million, which was associated with the early termination in this quarter, so it was acceleration of those costs. You also had change in the senior management compensation contracts, where basically we expense more upfront in the contracts than we used to. That's having also an additional component to it. When you look, let's say, at the employee and other benefits. If you look at employee salaries, let's say, and cash bonuses, they're growing roughly 12%, 13%, 14%. The rest is basically due to certain changes and extraordinary types of changes.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Robert, for your questions.
The next question is from James Hamilton.
Thank you. Two if I may please. Firstly on capital. Clearly you've enhanced your buyback, and you've raised the dividend, and you've also suggested that your core capital ratio will go to 16% once the IFRS transition comes in. I was just wondering, should we be expecting any further capital builds from here, or is it your strategy that as you are unable to deploy, obviously 32.8% return on equity is very difficult to deploy. You know, as you generate some excess return over what the balance sheet needs, will you be looking to return all of that to us one way or another, or will you be looking to see your CET1 ratio continue to increase?
Hi, James. It's a good problem to have plenty of capital. We have increased. In fact, 2021, last year, off of that, whatever we returned was twice the 2019 level. I think of 2022, we'll significantly increase the. We have started, in fact, to increase significantly versus the interim dividend of last year that we announced. I think overall we are distributing. You know, we obviously will always make a choice between distributing the capital and deploying it effectively. Between the choice, what we've indicated to the market is 35%-50% payout ratio. That's what we'll stick to.
Okay. Secondly, I mean, at the beginning, you described the period as extraordinary, and clearly it was. I was just wondering if you could sort of give us a little help, looking forward, if you can't comment on the performance in July, could you just sort of give us some indication of the direction of travel going through Q2? You know, is it getting better still? Is it? Was it brilliant at the beginning and it's slowing rapidly? How should we feel about the direction of travel of the core business?
Basically you had a few months, about 2.5 months of extraordinary activity that has slightly decreased, in fact. Overall, I think medium-term investment is picking up in the country. We had first couple of months, which was very emotional. You had some activity increase, then you had a lot of new sanctions coming in, so you know what's gonna happen and how you're gonna adapt and how, you know, what processes you have to adapt to, etc. Now it's all stabilized. You know, people have put in systems to make sure that this is controlled well and, you know, what you can do, what you cannot do and so forth.
Plus, some immigrants have also gone back to Russia and some to Ukraine because it's other parts of Ukraine got more stabilized. We are seeing slightly less, let's say, remittance growth than we had couple of months ago, but still very strong flows overall. That's why when we are, let's say, estimating a H1 increase of, you know, real GDP growth of 10.5% and estimating a full year of 9.2%, we are implying, let's say 7.5%-8% real growth for the H2 of the year, at a higher base though last year, because we had very strong last two quarters last year. Somewhat stabilized, but still very strong numbers.
I don't know if I answered, James, your question, and if you want to have more specific question on that, I'm happy to continue.
No, that's fine. Thank you.
We have a question in the Q&A chat, on the FX loan book. Did it drop due to prepayments or lack of demand? From Steven Gorelick.
Hi, Steven. Steve, basically that drop happened partly due to the fact that the translation into Lari, it's a smaller proportion. Overall I think dedollarization of the banking sector is going very fast given the fact that National Bank has built in different type of price incentives for bigger proportion of Lari as well as bigger proportion of deposits. Every marginal dedollarization percentage is beneficial for us and, you know, for any bank basically.
That has driven the system that basically means that we're down to 48% Dollar loans in the total book. To put things in perspective, a few years ago, basically, National Bank of Georgia said that, you know, they would target roughly 40% dollarization, or they would be happy to see 40% dollarization over the medium term. It's rapidly going from, you know, high 60s to down to 48% pretty fast. It's partly due to the fact that they're more Lari issuance than Dollar, plus so that proportion is happening, plus you see that you had Lari strengthening is impacting, having a technical impact as well.
There is another question also. Do you think you'll be able to meet your midterm cost-to-income ratio of 35% this year? From NW Compounders.
It's a bit early to say, but seems probable.
We have a raised hand from Simon Nellis from Citi.
Hi. Thanks very much for the opportunity. Just hoping you could elaborate a bit more on more of the margin outlook. I think it's been stabilized. Do you expect it to stay at that level? Or do you see any upside, downside risks? Just on loan growth as well, you know, if you could walk us through how you see the outlook, what the pipeline looks like, you know, maybe even a bit further along, like into next year and even afterwards. Thank you.
Yes. So first on the margins, we see it broadly stable. So what we basically are doing is that we are doing a lot of treasury operations, which basically has a very small margin, and that proportionally has grown significantly over the last one year. Had that not grown as a proportion of the overall portfolio and kept it constant, we would probably be looking at, you know, 30 basis points higher probably than what we have. It's apples to apples, let's say when you look at the market, that's probably. It would be more indicative. It's difficult to separate that out because it's interest-bearing assets and it's, you know, it's on both sides, so it's basically pushes the margin down.
Overall, I think flattish, I would say, slightly increased as it would be if you didn't have that kind of technical impact. So that's the outlook on the margin. Regarding the loan growth, we basically said, as the economy performs strong and we are expecting a nominal growth of roughly 20% this year, we are looking at, you know, slightly below that loan growth. As you can see, we have, you know, done on constant currency of 17.8%. Having said that, what we are seeing is relatively soft demand on corporate and mortgage loans, but very strong demand on MSME.
On corporate, though, I believe that as corporates are, let's say, experiencing very strong profitability this year, they will prepare for larger investments to come. As the geopolitical risks subside, let's say, over next few quarters, then we may see a significant growth there because they are in a very good shape, corporates are. We are seeing MSME, you know, growth continue given the strong economic growth. I think in line probably with nominal growth of the economy is more or less what to expect. As the economy's doing roughly 10% or so nominal growth, that's what we should expect. That's what our medium-term guidance is. You know, it could be slightly more.
Just on the margin, to what extent has higher rates been supporting that? And I guess if you do see a bit of a slowdown and rates come down, does that present some risk to the margin outlook?
There may be some of that, but then in Dollar terms, the rates are going up, so it will probably compensate one for the other.
Mm.
You know, there are always both ways, and it shouldn't be significant.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, Simon.
Thank you. Robert has his hand up, but I think he's had it all the way through all this.
He maybe has a new question. I don't know.
Yeah. Let's see.
Let's ask. Probably not.
Okay. We have a question from Otar Nadaraia .
Otar.
Good afternoon. Thank you for your time and taking my questions. My question was about your exposure to Belarus. You had some write-downs in Q1. In general, if you could share high-level thoughts or plans, how do you see this business going forward? In the extremely worst-case scenario, theoretically, if you need to close the doors tomorrow, what is the exposure that we are looking at? Is it the equity or it's a bit more closer to assets, net of cash maybe? Your thoughts would be helpful on this. On a similar note, I remember years ago you had exposure to Ukraine as well, if you could confirm if there is anything left on your balance sheet.
Thank you, Otar, for that question. I will confirm that there's nothing and has not been for a very long time on Ukraine on our balance sheet, and should there be, then it would be reported, obviously, in our statements. On Belarus, we have last quarter booked a significant provision under IFRS rules to anticipate the economic downturn that may be coming from the regional political turbulence that could have a wide economic impact on Belarus. Having said that, we have not seen so far any significant impact, and in fact, vice versa, increased flows in our bank has resulted in very decent results.
Having said that, obviously we understand that, given the sanctions and limitations, we will, you know, react to whatever comes our way, and we are always ready to adapt what needs to be done, including provisioning or closing doors, as you described, if need be. Having said that, we are in compliance with all the sanctions, as a UK company, and we have been able to implement all of this and increase the back office operations significantly to make sure that their compliance stays in check. That's where we are. In terms of anticipating any write-down above the equity if need be, you know, I don't expect any other expenses associated, but it's a highly imaginary scenario, let's say, at this point.
We would not expect any additional exposure. There's no other credit lines or other things other than the equity from the group level, at that point or any guarantees or anything of that nature.
Thank you. That's very helpful. If I can have second question. On a more positive note, you have quite strong liquidity. You had some. You continue the share buyback. You just announced the dividend. You continue to post strong loan growth. You did some debt buybacks as well this year, if I recall correctly. Just wondering, what do you see as a source of this high liquidity? Is it somehow related to the migrants, or it's all organic? Or as you mentioned, exports are rising, if there are any ties between those.
It's mainly the overall economic growth. The migrant deposits are there, but they're not significant because the national bank requirement on liquidity is such that if you take deposits from non-residents, you get additional marginal liquidity requirement is such that it doesn't go into extra liquidity, basically, above, you know, above certain level. So, you know, it's mainly the overall economic activity is resulting in higher liquidity. Plus we have plenty of lines from our creditors which are not utilized. We've been in a fortunate position to be in a place where we have a very strong capital and very strong liquidity, plus unutilized lines which are not included in those liquidity ratios.
Thank you. That's very clear.
Thank you. I don't see any questions at this stage.
I don't want to take you away from at least for some of you on vacation or take more of your time. I think results speak for themselves. In fact, we have been experiencing record revenue and lowest cost-to-income ever in terms of Bank of Georgia history. What makes me very happy is that our core numbers, which are part of the strategic targets that we have regarding our digital offering, especially our DAU to MAU, the daily interaction, let's say 46%. Our monthly active users getting closer to 1 million, which, you know, a few years ago was 300,000.
As well as something which was not in the presentation, but it is in our results on the seventh page. The number of active individual clients year-on-year going from 1.3 million to 1.5 million. We're talking about a country where the bankable population is slightly above 2 million. 14.6% growth in our number of active individual clients. I think all in all, very strong numbers, not just in terms of monetary results that we've reported, but also on number of strategic directions. I forgot to say also on payments, where we have a very strong growth in our acquiring business, and that business is increasing different types of innovation and products that we are rolling out.
On that side we will be increasing our offering as well. All in all, thank you for your support and for your interest in our call. With this, we will end our call.
We have one question on raised hand from Firebird Management.
Firebird, Steven Gorelick.
Oh, it's Harvey. Hi. Sorry, I don't know if you can see me, but just a quick question. I mean, there is some political concern about Georgia's walking a thin line between, on the one hand, maintaining trading relationships with Russia, not joining sanctions. On the other hand, the people support Ukraine very strongly and, you know, you can't check into a hotel in Tbilisi, as you know, without signing a statement of support for at least one hotel for Ukraine. Do you worry at all about any political flare-ups? People understand that, you know, Georgia economic growth is so powerful. On the other hand, you know, the feelings about Russia and Ukraine. Do you see any possibility of a flare up that could affect the business?
I think what we are seeing is that although Georgia has not joined the sanctions, the financial system has. In fact, U.S. government has published a detailed report appraising the National Bank as well as the local banking system for following those sanctions very well. You know, this in terms of the sanctions compliance on a financial flow side, it's you know, it's all good. Now in terms of Georgia not joining sanctions, that is there. Obviously Georgian population widely is supporting Ukraine, and you see Ukraine flags almost everywhere on the balconies of people, in the hotels, in our branches and so forth.
You know, if there are any, let's say, flare-ups as you described, it's, you know, we see some of it on Facebook, et cetera. You know, it's basically Georgian government is trying to have a neutral role. Is there a risk? There could be, but I don't see it as significant. I mean, we have had a largest demonstration for many years, a couple of months ago in support of the EU direction of the country, but it was very peaceful. You know, more than 100,000 people came out, and it was a message to the government saying that, you know, Georgian population widely supports EU aspiration. But that was about it.
It was very, very peaceful, and you know, I don't see it growing into something, you know, that's violent. I don't see Georgians doing violence. We've done enough in history, so at least we don't feel it right now.
Okay. Thank you.
Yes. Well, also I would add that on international resolutions and et cetera, Georgia is for support of Ukraine, whatever those kind of decisions have been. That's also important. Let me see. There's one more question in the chat, I guess. Do you see a risk that Russian immigrants might seek to bypass sanctions from Georgia as the bank at risk of being used as facilitating anti-Russia sanctions, et cetera? You know, we basically are aware of any of these risks, so we have bumped up our back office to make sure that the screening of such transactions, if there can be any, is done at a very increased level, let's say.
Because you know, Russia is very sort of different country right now, so any kind of transactions to, from, or any kind of third countries is screened a lot. You know, is there a risk? There's always a risk, but we have taken measures in a major way. In terms of the immigrants from Russia, most of them are, let's say out of estimated 50,000, let's say the estimate right now is roughly half is IT specialists. Then you have. It's really an educated, mostly educated, highly educated, let's say, younger population. You know, they are opening some bars and restaurants and some are doing IT companies. You know, there's not specifically the.
Not large businesses relocating to Georgia if that's what you mean. I don't see that as a significant risk, but we are aware of such risks, and we've taken measures. Well, with that, thank you very much for your attention. I thought it would be even a shorter call, but it has taken almost an hour, so I don't want to take more of your time. Thank you very much, and bye-bye. Nini?
Thank you.