FCB Malawi identified as 2022 Best Performer out of 5 SADC countries operations
FMB Capital Holdings Plc, a Mauritius based holding company of the FMB Capital Group — which has banking and finance operations in five Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries — has picked Malawi as one of the best performance contributors to its 2022 profits.
Group Managing Director for FMBcapital Holdings, Jaco Viljoen disclosed the development on Monday at FCB Malawi’s annual general meeting (AGM) held at the bank’s headquarters in Livingstone Towers in Blantyre.
Viljoen highlighted that he is very impressed with the overall performance made by the five African countries during 2022 year, whose operations managed to contribute a profit after tax of US$61.2 million (about MK62.6 billion) in the year ended December 31, 2022.
This represents a 51% jump from US$40.4 (about MK41.4 billion) reported in the previous year and Viljoen expressed his satisfaction of for the excellent performance in terms of profitability made in Malawi — which has helped the bank to becoming the biggest contributor in dollar terms.
“It is very unfair to pick one country as the best outstanding because each contributed very well and equally based on their currencies which was quite good for us,” he said. “But still, we must emphasize that FCB Malawi is our biggest contributor in the 61.2% realized followed by Mocambique.”
Viljoen said the strong performance in the year was on account of growth income accretive assets and profits across its footprint in Africa, adding: “All our banks in the five SADC countries have significantly contributed to this growth margin but Malawi has been the biggest contributor in dollar terms as well.”
Among others, Viljoen said the financial service providers’ non-performing loans remained one of the lowest in the regional banking industry at only 2.8% while the customer deposits went up to 17% in the 2022 financial year.
“These are also some contributory factors to our growth in profit margins in the year,” said Viljoen, adding that the Group foresees the constant growth in the profit margin this year as a result of measures that it has put in place against the risks.
In a separate interview, secretary general for minority shareholders association of listed companies (MISALICO), Frank Harawa said they were impressed with the performance of the group looking at the increased share price and dividends for the year.
Harawa said with an increase of K218 per share price and K4 per declared dividends, the minority shareholders of the group will change their lives for the better.
FMB Capital Holdings Plc is the Mauritius-based holding company of the FMB Capital Group which was listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE) in 1995 — operating in Malawi, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Its main subsidiary in Malawi is First Capital Bank, which was founded by Hitesh Anadkat in 1995 as First Merchant Bank with only one branch in Delamere House in Blantyre.
Over the years, First Capital Bank has tremendously experienced growth acquiring other banks in the process both in Malawi and beyond the borders. As of 2021, the bank has many branches and agencies across Malawi — offering employment to hundreds of people.
First Capital Bank Malawi Limited, the country’s first private bank and was granted the third-ever banking licence by the Reserve Bank of Malawi, is headquartered and main branch in Livingstone Towers, along Glyn Jones Road, in the central business district of Blantyre City.
With focus on Malawi’s corporate market, and with a large emphasis on service and customer relationships, First Capital had a successful start and began to show profits after only two years of trading.
In 2000, First Capital wholly acquired the Leasing & Finance Company Malawi Limited, which was since been dissolved and merged into First Capital Bank Malawi.
In 2008, the Bank led a consortium that was granted a banking licence in Botswana, where a subsidiary of FMBCapital Holdings Plc, First Capital Bank Botswana Limited trades.
The bank expanded its regional footprint in 2013, with the acquisition of ICB Banking Group’s businesses in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique and in December 2017, First Capital Bank Malawi de-listed its shares from the Malawi Stock Exchange and the value of its stock shares were acquired by the newly-created holding company, FMB Capital Holdings Plc, whose shares are now listed on the MSE.
Member companies of the FMBCapital Holdings Group include First Capital Bank Malawi Limited at 100% ownership; First Capital Bank Botswana; First Capital Bank Mozambique at 40% ownership (established July 2008); First Capital Bank Mozambique at 70% ownership (acquired June 2013); First Capital Bank Zambia at 49% ownership (acquired June 2013) and First Capital Bank Zimbabwe at 62% ownership (acquired October 2017).
The Bank’s operational branches in Malawi are Blantyre Branch (First House, Glyn Jones Road); Capital City Branch (Chief M’mbelwa House, Robert Mugabe Crescent, City Centre); Limbe Branch (FMB Building, Churchill Road); Lilongwe Branch (Old Kandodo Building, Kamuzu Procession Road); First Corporate Service Branch (Livingstone Towers, Glyn Jones Road); Mzuzu Branch (Orton Chirwa Avenue) and Zomba Branch (Kamuzu Highway & Main Road).
In addition to the seven brick-and-mortar branches, the bank maintains another 22 agency banking locations, where many of its financial institution’s services can be accessed.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Nyasa Times
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