Oldenburgische Landesbank (OLB) significantly increased its profit thanks to higher interest income and lower costs. Profit after tax climbed to 197.7 million euros last year, 71.5 percent higher than in the previous year, the bank announced on Wednesday.
"Despite some challenges in the market environment, we were able to significantly increase the bank's profitability," explained Bank CEO Stefan Barth. With a cost-income ratio of 42.3 percent, OLB increased its profitability by more than 12 percent.
Barth thus comes closer to his goal of listing OLB on the stock exchange. As the "Börsen-Zeitung" had recently reported, the OLB has secured the support of six other banks. The list of joint bookrunners includes Barclays, Berenberg, BNP Paribas, HSBC Holdings, KBW and Société Générale. Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and UBS are to lead the share issue.
According to Barth, OLB's valuation is well over 1 billion euros. The fact that banks dare to enter the trading floor is rather rare. This was most recently the case in 2015 with the IPO of Deutsche Pfandbriefbank.