Atlas Mara injects $100m into ABCH
banc abc

BancABC Bulawayo premises

Prosper Ndlovu Business Editor
LONDON-listed financial services group, Atlas Mara Limited (ATMA), has injected $73 million into ABC Holdings this month — sealing the $100 million liquidity support deal that was concluded last August.The giant conglomerate now holds 98.7 percent of the shares in the banking  group following the acquisition deal that was officially concluded on August 21,  2014.

As part of the contractual commitments on the takeover of the group, ATMA committed to inject $100 million into the group on conclusion of the transaction.

Acting group chairperson Doreen Khama yesterday confirmed the $100 million package had been received in full.

“The $100 million has been received by the group. The $20 million was received in December 2014, $7 million was received in February 2015 and the balance of $73 million was received in March 2015,” she said in a statement accompanying the group’s audited financial results.

Atlas Mara has operations in most sub-Saharan African countries and through ABC Holdings’ BancABC brand, the group has operations in Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. It also operates in Nigeria and Rwanda.

Khama said the group was elated by the coming on board of ATMA as a dominant shareholder, adding the move had set a solid foundation for the future of the regional banking institution.

She reported that $27 million of the amount had been used to recapitalise BancABC Tanzania at the end of last month and that the balance of the funding would for the time being remain at the ABCH to be used to recapitalise any subsidiary as and when new capital was required and for liquidity support purposes.

BancABC Zimbabwe posted an attributable loss of BWP3 million compared to an attributable profit of BWP118 million in 2013 while loans and advances increased by 11 percent from BWP3.1 billion to BWP3.4 billion with customer deposits clocking 14 percent high from BWP2.7 billion to BWP3.1 billion.

Khama said ATMA has plans to quickly improve the group’s operating standards, technology platform and the competitiveness of each subsidiary in its sub-Saharan market.

ABCH experienced mixed performance in different markets during 2014 — posting an attributable overall loss of BWP438 million compared to BWP198 million achieved in the prior year.

Khama said this was largely due to impairments as well as reduced margins compared to the prior year. She also reported operating expenses increased on the anticipation of realising planned growth in transaction volumes.

Among the major highlights of the financial results for the year is a nine percent drop in net interest income from BWP1,010 million to BWP919 million, 10 percent drop in non-interest income, 98 percent increase in impairment charges from BWP328 million to BWP650 million.

The group’s operating expenses shot up by 19 percent to BWP1.3 million from BWP1.1 million due to continued expansion of retail outlets while cost of income ratio also grew 86 percent compared to 66 percent in 2013.

However, total deposits increased 16 percent from BWP12.2 billion to BWP14.1 billion. Loans and advances also increased by six percent to BWP11.2 percent from BWP10.6 percent while financial assets held for trading also grew nine percent from BWP1.3 billion to BWP 1.4 billion.

The group’s total assets also grew by 11 percent from BWP 15.8 percent to BWP17.5 billion while cash and short term funds jumped 40 percent from BWP2.3 billion to BWP 3.2 billion.

 

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