ALMATY (Reuters) – Halyk Bank , Kazakhstan’s second-largest lender by assets, said on Tuesday its net profit jumped by 58% to 114.4 bln tenge ($617 mln) in 2014, above its own forecast of between 95 bln and 100 billion tenge.

Halyk Group financial results presentation year 2014 (PDF)

Halyk, the Central Asian’s most profitable bank, said its assets grew by 12.1% last year, while net loans issued to customers rose by 11.2%.

Halyk Bank (KASE: HSBK) is a commercial savings bank in Kazakhstan that also has branches in Georgia. It is the legal successor of the Soviet-era Sberbank in Kazakhstan. In July 2014, Standard & Poor’s international rating agency upgraded the Bank’s long-term credit rating to BB+ from BB.