Africa-Press – Namibia. THE FirstRand Namibia Group has returned to the billion-dollar profit-making entities category for the 2021 financial year, and for shareholders, this comes with a N$2,12 per share dividend.
The profit for the 2021 financial year was recorded at just above N$1,03 billion after it had sunk to N$867 million last year. The dividend declared for 2020 was also lower at N$1,54 per share.
It is not that the company performed better during the current year, but the increase is on the back of a high credit impairment reversal, which took a dip of 57,4% to settle at N$238,8 million.
FNB Namibia is still the group’s poster child and is responsible for the noteworthy results. FirstRand Namibia Limited also has under its fold Outsurance Namibia, RMB Investments and Ashburton Investments, among other companies.
Its shareholders are First-Rand EMA Holdings (Pty) Ltd (58,4%), the public (26,8%), and the Government Institutions Pension Fund (14,8%). The group released its final financials last week, and the integrated report shows that net interest income has slumped by 7% from over N$2 billion to N$1,8 billion.
Insurance income also recorded a whopping 25% decrease, from N$84 million to N$63 million. The only avenue of increase was the non-interest income, which edged up slightly by 3% from N$1,8 billion to N$1,9 billion.
This shows that the banking-dominated group has made more money from its core lending banking activities – another indication that typical banking in Namibia has reached a peak.
Earlier this month, The Namibian reported that Namibian banks are moving away from just being deposit-taking and loaning institutions – all thanks to low interest rates.
The global banking industry has been undergoing a revolution for the past few years. With the dawning of Covid-19, interest rates nosedived and credit uptake has seen stunted growth.
The benchmark repo rate now sits at 3,75%, the lowest it has ever been, but a new message has emerged from the central bank, raising hopes for a possible interest rate hike sometime later this year or early 2022.
Seeing that insurance and net interest income dipped big time, FirstRand’s breakthrough came only because management reversed a N$322 million impairment – boosting after-tax revenue to over N$1 billion.
The after effect of this is a 24% increase in profit. FirstRand Namibia, in a press statement, said the operating environment remains difficult but earnings are somewhat normalising.
According to the group’s chief executive officer, Conrad Dempsey, FirstRand Namibia’s steady performance over the period is partly attributed to the pandemic’s impact driving necessary innovative and holistic relief programmes aimed at helping customers, including the cashflow relief programme, support to small and medium enterprises and larger businesses to continue to cover costs and salaries, as well as numerous fee waivers and restructurings of loans.
The group’s total assets stood at N$43 billion, with loan advances accounting for the bulk at N$30 billion. On the opposite, total liabilities were at N$37,8 billion – with deposits also taking the bulk of it at N$36 billion.
The N$2,12 dividend includes an interim of N$1,18, which will be paid on 15 October this year. Assets under management for the group grew from N$14 billion in 2020 to N$15 billion, and tier 1 capital adequacy was recorded at 17,7% compared to 15,9% in 2020.
On the outlook, the group’s chief financial officer Oscar Capelao said the economic impact of Covid-19 will continue to put acute pressure on the group’s performance for the rest of the 2021 calendar year, “however, trends are improving post-lockdown even as economic recovery slowly emerges, and we remain hopeful that the remaining year will be better for Namibia and its people and the world at large”. The group’s shares closed last week at N$29,98.
