FIMBank holds its 2016 Annual General Meeting

13.05.2016

FIMBank plc held its Annual General Meeting yesterday at the Hotel Intercontinental in St. Julian’s. In his opening address, the Chairman of the FIMBank Group, Dr John C. Grech, explained the background to the Group’s performance last year.  Dr Grech described how shortly after FIMBank’s last AGM in May 2015, the Group had announced the appointment of Murali Subramanian as the Group’s new Chief Executive Officer. “Following the most difficult year in the Group’s history”, said Dr Grech, “the priorities for Murali and his strongly reinforced management team were to give stability to the business, the reinforcement of the governance and risk structures, and the gradual re-building of the portfolios to a sustainable level.”

FIMBank’s Chairman stated that “by pursuing a consolidation strategy aimed at turning around the core operating business, Murali and his team have managed to steer FIMBank well within sight of our goal of sustainable profitability. The Group has succeeded in overcoming the substantial impairments which marred the 2014 performance, whilst at the same time creating a revenue platform to generate value going forward.” Dr Grech added that “This is reflected in the results for 2015, which indicate that the FIMBank Group is on the right track. The Group is encouraged by the positive performance registered in the second half of 2015 and the first four months of this year, during which the FIMBank Group registered a profit, a trend which we expect will be sustained throughout 2016.”

The first item on the Meeting’s agenda - the approval of the 2015 consolidated audited financial statements  was accompanied by a presentation by Mr Subramanian, who explained that for the year ended 31 December 2015, the FIMBank Group registered a loss of USD7.1 million compared to a loss of USD45.2 million in 2014. At 31 December 2015, total Consolidated Assets stood at USD1.44 billion, a marginal increase of 2% over the USD1.41 billion reported at end 2014, while Total Consolidated Liabilities stood at USD1.27 billion, up by 3.5% from USD1.23 billion in 2014.  FIMBank’s CEO highlighted the fact that during 2015, net impairments decreased by 80%, standing at USD10.3 million, compared to USD50.7 million in 2014. “As a result of controlled impairments and marked-to-market losses”, said Mr Subramanian, “the Group has improved its operating income by USD37.3 million, to USD35.7 million”.

Commenting on the way forward, FIMBank’s CEO stated “Together with my colleagues in the management team, we intend to ensure that FIMBank will continue to respond with agility to the changes in economic cycles across its international geographical presence, and to reposition itself as a growing profitable institution, through adequate returns and value creation to all its stakeholders.”

In his concluding remarks to the AGM, Dr Grech had words of praise for the Group’s institutional investors, thanking them for their unwavering support. He also thanked his fellow directors, management and staff members for their hard work, dedication and commitment, and the Malta Financial Services Authority for its guidance and support.  Finally, he extended his gratitude to all of the Group’s shareholders for their “understanding, and their strong demonstration of loyalty to and confidence in FIMBank”.

Meanwhile, FIMBank’s Board of Directors will not be recommending a cash dividend.  Shareholders approved resolutions to declare a 1:25 bonus share issue by capitalisation of the share premium account. The Meeting also elected the Board of Directors, which includes Majed Essa Ahmed Al-Ajeel (Chairman of Burgan Bank SAK), Masaud M. J. Hayat (Chairman of United Gulf Bank BSC), Eduardo Eguren (CEO of Burgan Bank SAK).  A full list of elected directors may be found on the Bank’s website. Following the AGM, the Board of Directors confirmed Dr John C. Grech as Chairman and Mr Masaud Hayat as Vice Chairman.

For more information about FIMBank plc, visit www.fimbank.com.

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