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AfrAsia Bank Limited and its Group Entities
Annual Report 2015
page 42
It is my honour to present to you the 2015 Annual Report as acting
CEO during the transition period between James Benoit and his
successor, Sanjiv Bhasin.
James Benoit, co-founder of AfrAsia Bank Limited and who served
as CEO since inception, resigned from his position this year.
A firm believer of the growth prospects of Africa, James helped to
achieve many tangible brand and investor targets regionally and
internationally with a uniquely loyal and dynamic team and banking
culture. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to him for his
contribution. I am also pleased to welcome Sanjiv Bhasin who
has an extensive experience of 38 years across market-leading
institutions and will continue building on the Bank’s success and
write the Africa sequel.
This year is a year of transition, not only for AfrAsia Bank Limited, but
for Mauritius and beyond. The global economy remained volatile and
perplexing during the year. Here in Mauritius, we also had political
changes and some corporate failures. These have had their knock-
on effects on the economy and for us at AfrAsia Bank Limited. Still,
it was the year in which we gained great insight into our business
model, continued to innovate and made some inspiring and bold
moves.
Our challenges in our Zimbabwe operations continued and we took
the decision in February to surrender our banking licence there and
wind up the operations. This was expensive financially and painful
for the impact on staff there; we have a separate insight on this
elsewhere in the report. We also learned though that despite the
global turmoil, Africa remains a beacon of investment and AfrAsia
Bank Limited is participating strongly in this.
Our uniquely innovative flagship digital banking centre was launched
this year along with a prepaid VISA Platinum card; both firsts in this
market. Several new investment funds and private banking services
were also rolled out. All of these have continued to see us nominated
for, and win, international awards yet again.
We brought in National Bank of Canada as a shareholder during
the year for an initial 9.5% stake which has since risen to 17.5% on
our last rights issue and saw us raise nearly MUR 1bn of fresh Tier
1 capital. We also invested heavily in our brand and we hosted the
world’s first ever tri-sanctioned professional golf event involving the
European, Sunshine and Asian Tours, the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius
Open. With the support of the government and other private
sector partners, this was the country’s largest ever sporting event
showcasing just what we can all do together and gave Mauritius and
AfrAsia Bank Limited truly global branding coverage.
Business and Financial Performance
Our asset base stood at MUR 22bn at year end while our liabilities
amounted to MUR 67bn. Mainly this was on the back of strong
global business and private client deposit flows which increased by
over 50%. With clients in over 121 countries, AfrAsia Bank Limited
and Mauritius as a jurisdiction are now key financial intermediaries
for the entire world that is doing business in Africa and Asia.
We cautiously expanded our loan book at a less rapid pace. With
credit market fragility globally and locally and the uncertainty
of interest rates and currency wars, this is a deliberate strategy.
Our surpluses have largely been deployed in shorter term bank
placements and money market lines which provide us more agility
to manage balance sheet risks.
The ‘Management Discussion And Analysis’ discusses the detailed
metrics. Total Operating income was strongly up 40% but, with final
Zimbabwe write downs, our Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) reduced to
MUR 175m. However our core customer loan book has performed
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S MESSAGE