AfricaPress-Tanzania: NMB Bank share has stagnated in the last two years since it was overvalued.
The share of one of the leading banks traded at 2,340/-, but there was increasing interest in stocks in the prearranged market.
Analysts said the lender’s share in the prearranged market was at lower prices ranging between 1,300/- and 1,500/-.
Orbit Securities Head of Research and Analytics, Imani Muhingo said the two leading banks were almost similar, but trading in very different circumstances where CRDB trading was less than 50 per cent of its book value while NMB Bank was at about 109 per cent.
“CRDB Bank is much undervalued while NMB Bank is overvalued,” Mr Muhingo said, adding: “Although the book value per share isn’t a good gauge for banks of their balance sheet setup, it still gives a good indication.”
The economist said the price of CRDB Bank was flexible, while NMB Bank had remained “stagnant for almost two years now”.
“If the market could accommodate flexibility of NMB Bank price [between 1,300/- and 1,500/-] to such levels, I believe we will have seen NMB Bank as active as CRDB Bank,” Mr Muhingo said.
NMB Bank’s total assets grew by 15 per cent to 7.0tri/- up from 6.1tri/- in a similar period last year, while deposits dropped slightly to 5.2tri/- from 5.4tri/-.
On the other hand, CRDB Bank deposits registered 3.0 per cent year-on-year growth to 5.0tri/- from 4.9tri/- reported last year. Assets dropped to 6.7tri/- from 7.0tri/- at the end of September.
Tanzania Securities Senior Investment Analyst, Ombeni Uhuru based on their analysis NMB Bank was overpriced to warrant low activities at their counter.
“NMB Bank is overpriced based on our model and hence there are low activities in that counter,” Mr Uhuru said.
The senior analyst said going forward CRDB Bank’s campaign to tap retail markets indicated that in the future performance would be better than the current performance.
In this year’s third quarter, the two banks, NMB Bank and CRDB Bank, posted good performance despite the Covid-19 impact.
CRDB Bank reported an after-tax profit jumped by 31 per cent to 120bn/- compared to 92bn/- in the same quarter last year.
NMB Bank, on the other hand, recorded a 76 per cent pre-tax profit increase to 118bn/- in last year’s quarter three (Q3) to 208bn/- of a similar period this year.
DCB, another listed bank at the main market, its share dropped by 10.16 per cent in the last 10 months to 265/- on Tuesday from 295/- in January, while Maendeleo Bank, also at the main market, stagnated at 490/-.
Those listed on alternative market—Enterprise Growth, Mkombozi Bank, Mwalimu Bank, MuCoBa and Yetu Microfinance, their share prices were stuck at the same level in the last 10 months at 780/-, 500/-, 400/- and 550/- respectively.
