FIMBank plc - Quote

FIMBank plc - Profile

FIMBank plc was established in Malta in November 1994 and commenced business in June 1995.

The company is licensed to carry on the business of banking as a credit institution in terms of the Banking Act. The bank is licensed to conduct full banking activities in all currencies, except the Maltese lira, with both residents and non-residents. The company is also an Authorised Dealer for the purposes of the Exchange Control Act, 1972. In 2002, FIMBank obtained a Category 2 investment services licence from the Malta Financial Services Authority.

FIMBank’s core activities are international trade finance, with a strong foothold in letters of credit, documentary collections, back-to-back facilities in support of cross border transactions, and pre-demolition finance. FIMBank has counterparties in circa 50 countries, with a strong focus on the Middle East and Africa. Other services include international fund transfers and collections, operating accounts in major currencies, forward contracts, currency options and swaps, bank guarantees and foreign exchange. FIMBank participates in trade-related syndications with maturities up to 12 months, by taking exclusively other bank’s risks. To diversify risk across business activities and geographical markets, FIMBank recently expanded into forfaiting (i.e. discount of trade related receivables on a without-recourse basis and subsequent negotiation on secondary markets) and international factoring. The latter is being conducted through a series of joint ventures in selected markets with the participation of the International Finance Corporation (member of the World Bank Group).

On 23 June 2005, FIMBank announced that it had signed an 8 year subordinated convertible loan agreement of US$10 million with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank Group. The loan is earmarked for the establishment of up to five joint venture factoring and fortaiting companies in IFC member countries and to assist FIMBank in consolidating its objectives and increasing its presence in emerging markets. As part of the Loan Agreement, IFC has the right (but not the obligation) to convert all or part of the loan into fully paid up ordinary shares and become a shareholder of FIMBank during the first 5 years of the loan. In November 2005 the International Finance Corporation converted US$4,000,000 of the subordinated convertible loan into FIMBank ordinary shares, resulting in the IFC becoming FIMBank’s third largest shareholder.

In June 2005, FIMBank raised US$30 million from a Syndicated Trade Finance Facility on the Euroloan Market. The loan was 100% oversubscribed from an initial launch of US$15 million. The transaction was of a 12-month term and was used to support FIMBank’s global trade finance activities.

In October 2006, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) granted FIMBank plc a License to operate as an Authorised Firm within the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC).

The Directors of FIMBank plc are: Najeeb H.M. Al-Saleh (Chairman), John C. Grech, Fouad M.T. Alghanim, Mohammed I.H. Marafie, Pierre Olivier Fragniere, Hamad Musaed Bader Mohammed Al-Sayer, Francis J. Vassallo, Tareq M. Al-Saleh, Jacques Leblanc, Rogers Le Baron, John Freeman and Dr. Raffaella Bonadies (Company Secretary).

Subsidiaries and Associate Company

• London Forfaiting Company Ltd (100%): In September 2003, FIMBank acquired London Forfaiting Company plc (LFC), a forfaiting specialist listed on the London Stock Exchange. This company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange and was re-registered as a private company forming part of the FIMBank Group. LFC is registered in the United Kingdom as a private limited liability company. It was founded in 1984 and provides international trade finance services with particular focus on forfaiting business through an international network of offices in London, New York, Sao Paolo, Istanbul, Moscow, and Singapore. Some of these offices have distinct corporate status in the various jurisdictions where they are providing the service. LFC’s main activities are the purchasing of bills of exchange, promissory notes, deferred payment letters of credit and transferable financial loans from exporters or their banks and subsequently selling these instruments to customers or other institutions.

• FIM Business Solutions Ltd (100%): FBS is registered in Malta, and was established early in 2005 as business systems provider and technology consulting firm, primarily to service the FIMBank Group as well as to target FIMBank joint venture companies, downstream correspondent banks and other organisations known to the Group.

• MENAFactors (100%): MENAFactors, originally a joint-venture factoring company in Dubai between FIMBank and the National Bank of Dubai, became, on 29 May 2008, a fully owned subsidiary of FIMFactors BV (the factoring holding company of the FIMBank Group). This transfer of the entire shareholding of MENAFactors is only of a temporary nature. MENAFactors operates from Dubai International Financial Centre. It is the first specialist financial institution in the GCC region to provide a one-stop-shop offering full factoring and forfaiting services to the full range of importers, exporters, traders, banks and other financial institutions in Dubai and the wider Gulf/MENA region. MENAFactors commenced operations in November 2007.

• EgyptFactors (40%): EgyptFactors was established on the 14 November 2006. FIMBank has a 40% equity stake. The other shareholders are Commercial International Bank in Cairo (CIB), also with a 40% shareholding and the International Finance Corporation with the balance of 20%. CIB is the largest and most profitable private sector bank in Egypt with a retail network of 106 outlets. With a clear focus on trade finance instruments, EgyptFactors is committed to support and promote Egyptian cross-border trade.

• In December 2004 FIMBank successfully completed the acquisition of a 38.5% shareholding in Global Trade Finance Private Limited (GTF), an affiliate of Export-Import Bank of India engaged in trade finance services, predominantly factoring. The acquisition was executed by purchasing 12.5% of the shareholding held by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and 26% from WestLB AG for a total cash consideration of US$4.6 million. FIMBank plc announced on 28 March 2008 that it concluded the sale of its 38.5% shareholding in Global Trade Finance (GTF) Limited to State Bank of India for a gross consideration of US$55million. Furthermore, the State Bank of India also acquired the shares in GTF from Export-Improt Bank of India (40%) and International Finance Corporation (12.5%). As a result, the State Bank of India holds 91% of the shareholding in GTF.

Share Capital

At the end of the year 2000, FIMBank had an authorised share capital of 50,000,000 ordinary shares of US$1 each and an issued share capital of 20,000,000 shares.

On 17 March 2001, FIMBank effected a 2-for-1 share split which increased the issued share capital to 40,000,000 shares of US$0.50 each.

On 27 April 2001, FIMBank bought back 4,000,000 shares of a nominal value of US$0.50 each at a price of US$0.50 per share from Financial Participations TCF B.V. In May 2001 FIMBank launched a “combined offering” of 10,000,000 ordinary shares to the public. These shares consisted of the 4,000,000 ordinary shares that were bought back from Financial Participations TCF and a new issue of 6,000,000 ordinary shares. The shares in the “combined offering” had a nominal value of US$0.50 and offered to the public at US$1.25 per share.

Following the public offering the issued share capital of FIMBank increased to US$23,000,000 divided into 46,000,000 ordinary shares of a nominal value of US$0.50 each. FIMBank was admitted to the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange on 22 June 2001.

In November 2003, FIMBank made a rights issue of 20,000,000 shares to existing shareholders on the basis of 10 new shares for every 23 shares held at a price of US$0.75 per share. This issue was fully subscribed and FIMBank’s share capital increased by US$15,000,000 in January 2004.

In November 2005 the International Finance Corporation notified FIMBank that it exercised the right to convert US$4,000,000 of the subordinated convertible loan into ordinary shares. IFC were allotted 5,107,930 new ordinary shares making the IFC the third largest shareholder in FIMBank with a 7.16% equity stake. The new shares were admitted to the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange on the 30 November 2005. As a result, FIMBank’s share capital increased to 71,150,553 fully paid up ordinary shares of US$0.50 each.

In April 2006, FIMBank capitalised its share premium reserve as part of a 1-for-5 bonus share issue. Following a scrip dividend and the bonus share issue, FIMBank’s share capital increased by 14,725,333 shares of a nominal value of US$0.50. As a result, FIMBank’s share capital increased to 86,130,076 shares.

In December 2007, FIMBank made a rights issue of 22,894,699 shares to existing shareholders on the basis of 5 new shares for every 19 shares held at a price of US$1.10 per share. This issue was fully subscribed and FIMBank’s share capital increased by just over US$25,000,000.

Following the rights issue, FIMBank’s issued share capital amounted to 109,893,273 fully paid ordinary shares of US$0.50 each.

During the Annual General Meeting held in April 2008, shareholders approved a 1-for-5 bonus share issue by the capitalisation of the share premium account. Following the allotment of bonus shares, the issued share capital increased by 22,012,168 fully paid up ordinary shares. Moreover, following the scrip dividend, a further 1,052,635 fully paid up ordinary shares were allotted. These new shares were admitted to listing on 28 April 2008. Following the bonus share issue and the scrip dividend, FIMBank’s issued share capital amounted to 133,193,908 ordinary shares.

On 22 August 2008, together with its 2008 half-year results, FIMBank announced that following the extraordinary gain made from the sale of the 38.5% shareholding in GTF, the Directors recommended the payment of a special dividend of US$0.03290924 per share. Shareholders had the option of receiving the dividend either in cash or by way of new shares at a discounted price of US$1.60. Subsequently a further 1,089,599 shares, representing 39.6% of the maximum take-up of 2,748,963 shares, were allotted bringing FIMBank’s total issued share capital to 135,426,954 shares.

On 14 May 2010 the Malta Stock Exchange announced the admission of 488,240 new FIMBank plc shares to the Official List as a result of the scrip dividend issue. On 16 March FIMBank had recommended the payment of a gross dividend of US$0.018 per share with respect to the 2009 financial year. Shareholders had the option of receiving the dividend either in cash or in new shares at an attribution price of US$1.00. The take-up of 488,240 shares represented an acceptance rate of 31.2% bringing the total number of shares in issue to 135,915,194 shares.

FIMBank plc - Financials

FIMBank plc Interim Accounts

FIMBank plc Final Accounts

News for FIMBank plc

FIMBank plc - Downloads

• FIMBank plc - 2009 Annual Report (2.1 MiB, 113 hits)
• FIMBank plc - Presentation to Stockbrokers March 2010 (2.1 MiB, 93 hits)
• FIMBank plc - 2009 Full-Year Results Report (342.5 KiB, 49 hits)
• Fimbank joint ventures in Russia, India operational by Q1 2010 (145.5 KiB, 135 hits)
• FIMBank plc - Initial Public Offering May 2001 (912.4 KiB, 132 hits)
• FIMBank plc - Presentation to Stockbrokers September 2008 (5.6 MiB, 78 hits)
• FIMBank plc - Presentation to Stockbrokers May 2009 (2.4 MiB, 74 hits)
• FIMBank plc - Presentation to Stockbrokers August 2009 (3.3 MiB, 82 hits)
• FIMBank plc - Presentation to Stockbrokers April 2008 (541.4 KiB, 96 hits)