AfrAsia Bank recently announced its financial results for the year ending 30 June 2011, with a performance described as very satisfactory by its CEO, James Benoit, in the Bank’s fourth year of operations.

AfrAsia Bank saw its net profits, as a group, propelled by 223% to Rs 124.4 million during their last financial year compared to Rs38.5 million in 2009-2010.

This growth is explained by various contributing factors including a higher visibility on the local and regional markets as well as the continuous improvement and diversification in their product and service offering resulting in enhanced customer loyalty, especially in targeted markets such as India and South Africa.

Higher progression of the domestic deposit

On the deposit side, growth has been substantial increasing from Rs 7.9 billion to Rs 15 billion, Segment A (domestic) increasing from Rs 5.1 billion to Rs 8.3 billion while under Segment B (international), the progression rate was higher, from Rs 2.9 billion to Rs 6.7 billion.

Capital base of Rs 1.5bn at end of June 2011

AfrAsia Bank has also completed during the year two capital raising events to ensure their ability to compete. The Bank’s capital structure remains strong, with substantial Tier 1 capital increasing from Rs250m at start of operations in October 2007 to Rs922m in June 2011, and adding on board a new strategic international shareholder from France, PROPARCO.

The Bank also successfully raised unsecured subordinated bonds of Rs 417m from leading Mauritian institutional investors to further support the better than planned deposit and loan growth and bring its capital base to Rs 1.5bn at end of June 2011.

These capital raising exercises allowed the bank to have additional resources to finance important projects locally and in the region with their loan books increasing by 76% to reach Rs 8.5 billion. Loans and advances allocated under Segment A amounted to Rs4.6 billion, an increase of 84% from financial year 2009-2010.

50% of AfrAsia’s business comes from the India-South Africa axis

With core Mauritian, South African and Indian business areas performing strongly for AfrAsia in its three customer segments, the bank has already started to review other African and South East Asia banking investments to better serve its customers.

Some key operating and financial performance includes :

- A 211% increase in net profit after tax to reach Rs 116,1m at Bank’s level and Rs 124,4m at Group’s level;
- Return on Equity based on average equity and reserves increasing from 5.6% to 13.3%;
- An increase in earnings per share from Rs 0.78 to Rs 2.13;
- Customer loans growth by 76% from Rs 4,9bn to Rs 8,5bn in one year.