Like the green colours it is associated with, Standard Chartered Bank Botswana, continues to defy the headwinds that have dragged performance of most companies in the country.
On Tuesday, the bank also known as Stanchart, announced to shareholders that its consolidated full year profit before tax for 2021 went up by 42 percent. This means its PBT went up to P77 million from P48m reported the year prior. The Botswana Stock Exchange quoted banker’s Profit after tax for the period under review went up by 21 percent.
The bank’s customer deposits are also up by 6 percent year-on-year while net fees and commission are up 2 percent driven by improved business volumes. Operating income is marginally down 2 percent to P739 million.
During the financials presentation, Stanchart Chief Executive – Mpho Masupe said notable growth was recorded across products in both the Retail and Corporate businesses. The two segments are said to have expanded their value propositions through the year.
Masupe also shared that strong discipline on cost lines reaped desired results as operating expenses were held flat year-on-year. He said the credit impairments remained low due to a combination of diligent portfolio management and the improving macro-economic variables and asset quality.
Stanchart’s recent performance has been remarkable, staging a recovery after a challenging period of declining profits and in some instances, steep losses. The strong sets of financials build on 2019’s momentum after the bank tripled its pre-tax profit for the financial year ended December 2019 to P69.5 million, up from P23 million registered in 2018 when the bank was just emerging from one of its toughest time since operating in Botswana. For the period of six months ended June 2019, Stanchart’s pre-tax profit was P33 million, up by 65 percent from 2018’s full year profit, which had kickstarted the bank’s return to profitability.
Stanchart, which has been operating in the country for 122 years fell from the list of the top three most profitable banks in the country in 2017 when the banker posted a P232 million loss, with the financial performance dragged by the closure of the BCL mines – one of the bank’s top clients. The steep loss was in contrast to the P79.7 million profit made in 2016, which of course was also a sign of the bank’s declining bottom line performance – falling from the highs of P319.2 million made in 2014, before plunging to P47.4 million in 2015.
On Tuesday Masupe spoke of the continued investments in digital platforms adding that particularly the launch of Straight2Bank NextGen yielded positive results with costs declining by 3.7 percent year-on-year.
“If we have learnt anything from the years of the pandemic, it is the need to embrace agility and trust the strength of our balance sheet to continue to invest for business growth,” Masupe said.
Meanwhile the banker declared a final dividend of 20.21 thebe per ordinary share. The bank executive said that subject to final regulatory approvals, this dividend will be payable on or about 23rd May 2022 to those shareholders registered at close of business on 11th May 2022 with an ex-dividend date of 9th May 2022.
