In the context of the crisis, Absa Bank overcame itself and achieved positive financial results. It "fattened up" 115% to 633 million meticals in profits. This is more than double the 2020 record.
Absa Bank continues to grow in the Mozambican market and it seems, at a very significant pace. And last year was no exception. Despite the context of the financial crisis caused by Covid 19 and that led to the closure of several companies, especially SMEs, Absa Bank managed to achieve good results.
The data from the 2021 report and accounts presented yesterday, indicate total revenue growth of over 20%, 5.7 billion meticais. And net profits grew by 115%, 633 million meticais. This is more than double the record in the previous year (2020).
In addition, Absa's 2021 accounts reveal that the bank is increasingly strong and solid, with a solvency ratio of 19.2%, well above the 12% regularly required by the Bank of Mozambique. Similarly in terms of liquidity, Absa Bank managed to achieve the ratio of 46.1% against the minimum of 25% required by the regulator.
Through "a set of management measures" the bank also saw operating costs reduced by about 4.6% to 3.9 billion meticais.
"These numbers effectively indicate that the bank in 2021 managed to move in the right direction, in an extremely challenging environment and in a prudent manner", reveals Rui Barros, Absa Bank's director during the presentation of the report and accounts.
Market share rises above 9%
In terms of credit assignment and level of deposits, Absa Bank saw its market share growing to numbers close to 10%. In general terms, "the bank now represents more than 9% of the national market", says the director of Absa.
By 2021 the bank also managed to increase the total number of customers by about 9%, to 214,000. But not everything went smoothly. For example, regarding non-performing loans, there was a worsening in default, which reached 4.2% in 2021 "largely resulting from the impact of Covid-19 and businesses exposed to the LNG value chain," explains Rui Barros.
In the "world" of capital markets, the bank had a prominent role with the market share rising to about 28%, where "more than a quarter of the activity in capital markets in the stock exchange is intermediated by Absa bank," says the administrator. And the same scenario can be seen in the foreign exchange market, which is estimated to have grown by 29.3%.
The bank also stood out in terms of support for SMEs and retail banking, where the loan portfolio grew by 7.81 Q2 and deposits increased by 5.41 Q2.
"These numbers are well above the growth that the Mozambican market had throughout 2021 and proves the trust that customers gave Absa and somehow the model they were able to adopt to adapt to the Covid -19 pandemic," said Pedro Carvalho, CEO of Absa.
On the digital component, the bank reports that there has been remarkable progress in digital adoption, with an increase of 26% among individuals and 45% among businesses.
"In corporate banking the growth was even more pronounced with the loan portfolio growing by more than 18% and the deposit portfolio reaching about 65%," the CEO emphasizes.
Carvalho ends by stating that in the corporate banking component, the big focus in 2021 was on supporting clients by launching more and better digital platforms, which would allow them to continue to relate to the bank, to develop their business, but remotely, in a digital way, and this was what was seen "very successfully by our clients.