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AfrAsia Bank Limited and its Group Entities
Annual Report 2015
page 38
Dear Valued Shareholders
This report marks many milestones achieved this past year and
numerous new avenues forward for AfrAsia Bank Limited. It is the
first report to you from an Independent Non-Executive Chairman,
which duty I have been entrusted with. It is with humility and a deep
sense of service that I have accepted to be the second Chairperson
of your Bank.
On behalf of the Board and the Bank, we place on record our sincere
thanks and deep appreciation of the contribution and leadership of
Arnaud Lagesse, CEO of GML, the founding and largest shareholder
of AfrAsia Bank Limited. Arnaud served as Chairman for the first
seven years, overseeing the creation and success of the Bank along
the visionary lines he aspired to it when first seeking the banking
licence in 2006.
I welcome the new CEO, Sanjiv Bhasin, who will be tasked to
spearhead the reorganisation of the Bank’s internal structure to
better serve our clients while reinforcing our footprint in key markets
and creating more value for all stakeholders.
Allow me to comment briefly on the performance of the Bank for the
year ended 30 June 2015.
The Year under Review
I would like to emphasise that the Bank has been profitable and has
a strong capital base. Offsetting strong net interest income growth
and treasury dealing profits was the residual impact of closing the
Zimbabwe banking operations in February 2015.
The net result was thus heavily impacted, with Bank net profit after
tax at MUR 175m vs MUR 223m last year and Group net loss after
tax at MUR 176m vs Group net profit after tax of MUR 325m last
year. With the strategic investment by National Bank of Canada, now
at 17.5% along with a general rights issue, which in total increased
equity capital by nearly MUR 1bn, we now have a strong common
equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 7.5% and total capital adequacy ratio of
13.7%. We have maintained all dividend requirements to our Class A
shareholders throughout.
Fully aware of the importance of maintaining an adequate level of
capital to support further profitable growth, we have adopted a
dividend policy that ensures first the payment of dividends to our
Class A shareholders; and a flow of dividend payments that provides
an adequate cash return to our ordinary shareholders whilst keeping
a sufficient amount of retained earnings to fuel the Bank’s growth.
Compliance and Culture
The Bank has been a fast growing, dynamic and entrepreneurial
business for several years now. At the same time, there has been
a focus on fostering a culture that knows of and implements
compliance to the regulated environment we operate within.
The Bank has also implemented extensive systems, along with
significant new executive hires in audit, legal and compliance.
Several independent examinations and audits have also been
commissioned throughout the year.
The Bank is now operating across many jurisdictions and with
substantial numbers of new staff hired over the last years. It is in the
process of rolling out a new team culture programme with detailed
training and induction programmes. The ‘Bank Different’ culture has
been core to the Bank’s success and it is now time to refresh and
revalidate how this works in our daily service to customers and how
we engage with each other. The Bank has gained and will maintain
a competitive advantage from its unique and internally-developed
process, which is always a work in progress and the quality, diversity
and adaptability of its human resources in an ever-changing
competitive environment.
CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE