AfE 2016 logo-196 135 Regional awards Press release View full 2016 results
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Angola Best bank: Banco Angolano de Investimentos |
Angola has been one of the countries hardest hit by the fall in the price of oil since mid-2014, culminating in Angola requesting an IMF bailout earlier this year. These economic conditions imposed great challenges on the banking system, in particular the increase in credit and foreign-currency liquidity risks.
Even so, Banco Angolano de Investimentos (BAI) has managed to grow. The bank wins this year’s award for best bank in Angola, reclaiming the title from last year’s winner, Banco de Fomento Angola.
While its total assets decreased by 0.3% as a result of a 1.4% reduction in deposits, net income increased by 20% because of a 25% jump in net interest income, a 42% increase in earnings from FX operations and the rigorous control of administrative costs.
Pre-tax profit rose from AKz12 billion ($72 million) in 2014 to nearly AKz16 billion in 2015. The return on average equity stood at 13%, while the return on average assets reached 1.4%. The regulatory solvency ratio was 20% at year end, well above the regulatory minimum requirement of 10%.
In human resources, BAI introduced a transport service in 2015 for employees in Luanda and provided a health centre.
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Ghana Best bank: Ecobank Ghana |
Ecobank Ghana returns as this year’s best bank in Ghana, after having again delivered impressive results in the face of a challenging economic climate. Most key metrics rose, from customer deposits to dividend per share. The one that fell was return on average equity, but at 38%, down from last year’s 47%, it would still make most bankers in Africa and beyond envious.
The bank launched the Ecobank Ghana SME Club in 2015. The club rewards Ecobank’s loyal SME clients by assisting them in the development of their businesses, leveraging Ecobank’s presence in 36 African countries to promote growth.
Domestic banking remains an important part of the bank’s business. It generated C420 million ($108 million) in operating income before impairment losses, contributing more than 41% of Ecobank Ghana’s total, while improving performance and profitability in the year under review. The corporate bank, meanwhile, delivered growth of 40% in revenue, from C270 million in 2014 to C378 million last year.
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Kenya Best bank: Equity Bank |
Among the 40-odd banks in Kenya’s overpopulated banking sector, one stood out again over the last 12 months as the nation’s best. Equity Bank had another remarkable year. Despite a challenging environment, the bank registered a pre-tax profit of KSh22.4 billion ($222 million) in 2015 up from KSh20.1 billion in 2014.
The bank’s success over the year was due in no small measure to its SME strategy and the digitization of its services.
The SME strategy led the loan book to grow by 26% to KSh269.9 billion. This resulted in interest income growth of 23% to KSh43.5 billion. Deposits grew by 23% to KSh302.2 billion, which resulted in interest expense growth of 51% to KSh9.3 billion. Total Income grew by 18% to KSh56.1 billion.
The growth was further supported by the bank’s digitization programme. New income streams, built on the Equitel mobile banking channel, saw mobile customer numbers grow by 215% to 1.6 million in 2015. The value of mobile banking transactions grew to reach KSh115 billion.
The non-performing loan ratio also improved, falling from 4.2% to 3%. Return on average equity stood at an impressive 27.5% and its return on assets at 4.5%.
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Malawi Best bank: Ecobank Malawi |
Another bank that retains its title from last year is Ecobank Malawi, which again had a great year, marked by strong growth across most key metrics.
Some of the changes over the past 12 months are extraordinary in the circumstances. The bank halved its non-performing loan ratio to just 2%, while increasing its market share of loans by 45%. Total loans rose 54%, to $71 million. Return on equity also rose, reaching 36%, with profits before tax growing 54% to $8 million.
Ecobank Malawi introduced new products during the year, including the Njatonse account, which allows a very low minimum balance to cater for Malawi’s low-income earners. The launch of the account helped the bank grow its customer base 25% to over 26,000. It also aggressively sold its mobile banking solution in partnership with Airtel Money, helping it reach unbanked areas of the country. It doubled the number of its ATMs to 26 to bring banking closer to its customers.
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Mauritius Best bank: Mauritius Commercial Bank |
Mauritius Commercial Bank is 178 years old, yet it is still growing as fast as any start-up. Its bottom-line net profit rose last year by 36%, to reach about MauRs5 billion ($143 million). It again wins this year’s best bank in Mauritius award, fending off competition from State Bank of Mauritius.
MCB has more than 930,000 individual and corporate customers. Its market shares of credit to the economy and of local currency deposits are 40%. It issues nearly half the banking cards in the country. Its 173 ATMs are 37% of the country’s total. It has 40 branches. Over the past four years, MCB has provided about half of all SME loans.
In 2015, total deposits and gross loans grew by 18.6% and 6.9% respectively. Gross and net non-performing loans ratios came down to 5.9% and 3.5% as at 30 June 2015 (the last available figures), compared with 7.1% and 4% a year earlier. MCB’s capital adequacy ratio improved from 13.8% in 2014 to 15.1% in 2015, including a tier-1 ratio of 13.8% compared with 10.3%.
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Morocco Best bank: Attijariwafa |
Attijariwafa, under CEO Mohamed El Kettani, retains its best bank in Morocco award and continues to be the most active international Moroccan bank. Active in 14 African countries, most of them in Francophone Africa, the bank has 7.9 million customers and over 3,500 agencies. Domestically it remains the leading retail and corporate bank.
Attijariwafa faced difficulties in 2015; its non-performing loan ratio rose from 4.9% to 5.5% – the third consecutive year-on-year rise. But the bank’s NPL struggles are shared by all Moroccan banks and Attijariwafa outperformed others on that metric. The NPL ratio across the banking sector rose to 7.47% last year, the highest since 2007.
In other ways, too, Attijariwafa performed better than its rivals. The bank’s return on average tangible equity remained quite high, at 16.2%. Profit before tax rose slightly, from about Dh8 billion ($826 million) to Dh8.1 billion. And the bank is a strong lender, providing one in four loans in Morocco. In 2016, the bank renewed its commitment to allocate Dh20 billion to small and medium-sized African enterprises.
Last year, Attijariwafa, together with Spain’s Suma Capital, created the Fonds Africain d’Efficacité Energétique, to direct capital towards investment in energy efficiency in Morocco, Tunisia and Côte d’Ivoire.
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Mozambique Best bank: Banco Unico |
This year’s best bank in Mozambique award again goes to Banco Unico, led by CEO Antonio Correia. The institution, which claims the title from Millennium bim last year thanks to its extraordinarily fast growth, has managed to deliver superb results once again.
The bank, which is just four years old, grew its net profit by nearly 500% in 2015, to Mt116.8 million ($2 million). Total assets, meanwhile, grew by 35%, with deposit growth of 38% and loan growth of 23% – higher on every count than the bank’s Mozambican rivals.
Its tier-1 capital ratio has risen from 9.9% to 16%, and although its non-performing loan ratio is up, at 3.8% it is still not a source for concern.
Apart from these numbers, Banco Unico has undertaken some interesting projects over the past year. The bank developed a tailor-made solution for the Municipality of Maputo that allows it to get online reconciliation and reporting of all tax payments. The service was successful enough that Banco Unico deployed it to three other municipalities.
The bank also launched a mobile banking application and a pre-paid student card, which is at once a university student identification card and a banking card.
Though Millennium bim is still a much larger bank, with seven times Banco Unico’s total revenues last year, that bank is struggling to generate any growth. Its non-performing loan ratio rose last year from 4.1% to 6.2%, its return on tangible common equity fell from 23% to 19.4% and its net income dropped from Mt3.5 billion to Mt3.4 billion.
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Nigeria Best bank: Guaranty Trust Bank Best investment bank: Chapel Hill Denham |
As Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria took a big economic hit last year. One bank managed to stay strong and grow in the face of difficult conditions – Guaranty Trust Bank.
It kept its non-performing loan ratio in check, allowing it to rise from 3.15% to just 3.21%, and it saw its deposits fall by just 1%. Return on average equity dropped by six percentage points, but at 25.55% it was still high and the best among Nigeria’s large banks.
Other key metrics were positive. GTBank’s profit before tax rose 4% to N121 billion ($608 million) and total assets were up 7%, to N2.5 trillion.
The bank has a good physical presence in its home market, with more than 224 branches, 18 e-branches and 1,165 ATMs. Its customer base has grown from 2.5 million in 2011 to 8.3 million last year and it is by far the largest financial institution in Nigeria by market capitalization.
Apart from its impressive efforts in digital banking, which earned it this year’s best digital bank in Africa award, GTBank has also worked hard to improve customer satisfaction in a number of other ways. The GTBank Seniors Account allows citizens aged 65 years and above to bank for free. It also offers GTExpress, a comprehensive agent banking service that allows customers to access financial services at supermarkets, schools, markets and restaurants.
With the Agence Française de Développement, GTBank also launched a N3 billion fund called SME Business Evolve to boost financing for small businesses in Nigeria.
In a year of limited investment banking activity in Nigeria, Chapel Hill Denham again stood out, with a breadth and quality of deals that justify this year’s award for excellence.
Led by Bolaji Balogun as CEO, Chapel Hill advised and managed debt, equity and M&A transactions throughout the year under review. With continued volatility in Nigerian equity markets and the need for all Nigerian banks to address regulatory capital requirements, Chapel Hill advised First City Monument Bank on issuing tier-2 capital and subsequently managed its N23 billion tier-2 bond.
Chapel Hill was also lead financial adviser and lead manager on the $385 million debt raising for the Nigerian firm Petrolex Oil & Gas, which needed funds to develop its infrastructure and optimize its supply chain.
The bank worked with Lafarge Africa to complete its acquisition of a 15% stake in United Cement Company of Nigeria (Unicem). That took Lafarge’s stake in Unicem to 50%, leading to a full consolidation of Unicem and Lafarge taking on Unicem’s debt.
Chapel Hill pitched Lafarge Africa about considering a refinancing of that debt and was subsequently mandated as lead financial adviser and bookrunner on Lafarge’s N100 billion debt-issuance programme.
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Rwanda Best bank: Bank of Kigali |
Rwandan banks went through a year of flux in 2015, as their total number increased to 12 after the entry of Mali-headquartered Bank of Africa. Bob Diamond’s London-listed investment vehicle Atlas Mara has also acquired and merged BRD Commercial Bank and Banque Populaire du Rwanda.
Through all this change, Bank of Kigali remained the country’s best and largest financial institution, posting a year of sustained growth. Return on average equity fell slightly from 22.9% to 21.7%, but the bank’s net income rose 11.7% to $28.2 million and its total assets rose 16.3%.
The bank now has 75 branches, supported by a growing network of agents and mobile vans. Despite increased competition, Bank of Kigali still holds the largest market share of about 30% across key balance-sheet metrics. The bank’s loans and deposits have also risen. Gross loans were RF324.8 billion ($415 million) in 2015, an increase of 31.6% over 2014. The SME loan book rose to RF69.7 billion, making Bank of Kigali the largest lender to the SME segment in Rwanda.
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South Africa Best bank: FirstRand Bank Best investment bank: Rand Merchant Bank |
South Africa is losing its preeminent position among the continent’s large economies, with a heavily devalued currency and a falling growth forecast. But some banks have managed to stay strong and profitable despite these challenges, none more so than FirstRand Bank.
At 25%, FirstRand still has by far the highest return on equity of South Africa’s big four banks; Barclays Africa’s was 17%, Standard Bank 16% and Nedbank 15%. Five-year profit growth is also higher at FirstRand than anywhere else; 17.5% compared with Barclays at 12%, Standard Bank’s 16.5% and Nedbank’s 17.4%. Profit for the year was R15.6 billion ($1 billion).
All segments of FirstRand’s retail banking division – residential mortgages, cards and personal loans – have grown over the past year. And the non-performing loan ratio remained low at just 2.3%, a telling sign of the bank’s health.
The bank continues to exercise prudence during deteriorating economic conditions. In the first six months of the year it created provisions against its exposure to the oil and gas sectors. Common equity tier-1, meanwhile, is up to 14.2% from 13.6% in 2014.
Like last year, Rand Merchant Bank has dominated South Africa’s investment banking sector, reinforcing the dominance of its parent, FirstRand, as the country’s best bank.
RMB produced solid results for the period, with pre-tax profits increasing 13% to $264 million and the business delivering a satisfactory return on equity of 22.2%. This performance was achieved against the backdrop of a difficult economic environment and highlights the resilience and diversification of the investment bank’s portfolio of businesses.
Among the notable deals were a R3 billion debt issue for Old Mutual Life Assurance Company and the R2.5 billion Nitro 5 securitization, the largest listed securitization in 2015 in South Africa. RMB worked on more debt issues – 32 in total – than any other bank in the country last year.
It also worked on last year’s main mergers and acquisitions, among them the £1.35 billion reverse takeover of Al Noor Hospitals by Mediclinic International, Brait’s £783 million acquisition of New Look Retail Group and Brait’s £691 million acquisition of Virgin Active.
The bank acted as financial adviser to the Fountainhead Property Trust’s board on Redefine Properties’ R10 billion acquisition of Fountainhead Property Trust. Finally, RMB coordinated a R11.5 billion-equivalent multi-currency refinancing package for RBM – the largest South African operation of the Rio Tinto group.
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Tanzania Best bank: National Microfinance Bank of Tanzania |
CRDB Bank continues to perform well, growing its market share in total assets, deposits, loans and capital. But once again, National Microfinance Bank of Tanzania (NMB) remained a step ahead and wins this year’s award for best bank in Tanzania.
For one, NMB’s non-performing loan ratio was just 2.4%, compared with CRDB at 8.4%. And its return on equity is 24.4% versus CRDB’s 18.8%. Over the past year, NMB increased lending, with net loans, advances and overdrafts rising from TSh2 billion to TSh2.5 billion ($909,000 to $1.1 million).
Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of its privatization last year, NMB reflected on what it had achieved over that time: the creation of over 1,500 new jobs, TSh7 billion spent on supporting communities, more than 100 branches and over 600 ATMs added, and a customer base grown from 600,000 to 2 million.
From its humble beginnings, offering mainly payment services to the government, a small lending platform and savings accounts, NMB developed into a large financial institutional providing banking services to individuals, small to medium-sized companies and larger businesses. NMB has worked especially hard to provide financial services to Tanzania’s unbanked and underbanked – around 65% of the bank’s branches are located in rural areas.
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Uganda Best bank: Standard Bank Uganda |
The Ugandan economy experienced high volatility and the continued depreciation of its currency, the shilling, through 2015. That situation may have hindered Stanbic Bank Uganda’s performance, but overall its results were still highly impressive. The return on equity at the bank’s corporate and investment banking division fell, but was still 53.3%, while the return on equity at the bank’s personal and business banking division rose from 15.1% to 24.9%.
The bank’s tier-1 capital ratio dropped from 17.5% to 16.4%, but is still at a good level. Profit for the year, meanwhile, grew from USh135 billion ($40 million) to USh151 billion.
Notably, the bank’s corporate and investment bank had a strong year, working on a number of important deals. Among them was the $86 million increase of the acquisition term-loan facilities of Eaton Towers Uganda.
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Zambia Best bank: Stanbic Bank Zambia |
Few banks in Africa had as strong a year as Stanbic Bank Zambia. Its profits after tax rose 24% to ZK207 million ($40,000), its customer loans rose 41% to ZK4.6 billion, and customer deposits, even more impressively, rose 61% to ZK8 billion.
The bank launched a number of initiatives over the past year. It started the longest banking hours in Zambia – 7am to 10pm Mondays to Saturdays and 10am to 6pm on Sundays.
It made particular strides in its SME offering, with SME deposits growing by over 25%. Credit to SMEs, meanwhile, totalled ZK41 million in 2015.
Stanbic Bank also heavily supported Zambia’s substantial agricultural sector, banking half of the country’s 600 commercial farmers and lending ZK770 million to agriculture.
The bank’s corporate and investment banking division also worked on a number of important deals. The bank invested over $135 million in the construction of malls in Zambia and over $385 million in the energy sector for the last 18 months to help alleviate the country’s power crisis.
It also helped to raise $3 billion for mining projects across Zambia. The bank partnered with Shoprite Zambia to provide fast money transfers to its customers.
