Moza Banco cuts losses by 73.2% in 2017 – annual report

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Moza Banco cuts losses by 73.2% in 2017 – annual report

1:05 CAT | 23 Apr 2018

Mozambican Moza Banco, bailed-out by the state in 2016, reduced its losses by 73.2 percent during 2017 according to the annual report released on Friday.

“We can say with all conviction that for Moza 2017 will be marked as the year of refoundation and financial restructuring,” the message of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, João Figueiredo, reads.

Novo Banco, a Portuguese bank, holds a minority 7.54 percent interest in Moza Banco.

The 2017 result was a loss of 1.4 billion meticais (EUR 19.7 million), a 72.3 percent improvement over 2016’s 5.2 billion meticais (EUR 71.2 million).

“The net result, although negative, is much lower than in 2016 and is in line with the results of the 2017-2021 strategic plan ,” the chairman’s message reads.

João Figueiredo points out that the bank closed the year with a solvency ratio of 23.46 percent, well above the 9 percent imposed by the regulator and the average level of the market, he says.

Moza Banco was rescued by the Mozambican state in September 2016, the Bank of Mozambique suspending its board of directors and executive committee to “protect the interests of depositors” in the face of the “unsustainable” deterioration of the “financial and prudential situation”.

The regulator injected about eight billion meticais (EUR 108 million) into the bank to halt a collapse it feared would drag the whole Mozambican financial system down.

Last year, the Bank of Mozambique announced a recapitalisation operation worth 8.1 billion meticais (EUR 109 million) and the sale of Moza to Kuhanha, which manages the central bank workers’ pension fund.

In December 2017, Moza’s shareholders contributed a further 3.5 billion meticais capital increase, leaving the shareholder structure Kuahnha 84.62 percent, Mozambique Capitals with 7.85 percent and Novo Banco África SGPS (a Portuguese company) with 7.54 percent.

In February, the Moza administration announced that Arise, a financial holding company consisting of two Dutch banks and the Norwegian sovereign fund, would also become bank’s shareholders in a transaction that foresees Moza acquiring Banco Terra, an institution owned by Arise Fund in Mozambique.

Moza did not comment on to the most recent (2016) survey of Mozambican bank by KPMG, which pegged it the fourth-largest Mozambican bank in terms of total assets in 2015.

Source: Lusa