FDH group on growth path

Financial services group FDH Financial Holdings has reported a consolidated after-tax profit of K4.1 billion in the year ended December 2014, up from K501 million achieved during the same period the prior year.

FDH group is a diversified investment and financial solution with interests in banking, discount house operations, stock broking, investment management, advisory services and foreign exchange bureau operations.

The group’s revenues quickened to K12.8 billion from K6.4 billion same period the year before.

FDH group performance came against a myriad of factors, including an uncertain economic and business operating environment, a slowdown in economic activity, high interest and inflation rates, volatile exchange rate and regulatory changes.

“Our results reflect that our diversified business shows good growth and resilience despite the tough, uncertain and challenging operating business and economic climate,” said Thomson Mpinganjira, the group’s chief executive officer in an interview.

FDH Bank delivered strong results against the challenging operating environment. In 2014, the bank grew its revenues year-on-year to K10.1 billion from K5.1 billion in 2013, with profit after-tax growing to K3.3 billion from K20.1 million in 2013.

The six-year-old bank is among top five banks in the country with respect to market share for deposits, according to a Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) recent financial stability report.

“The bank will continue to exploit the various opportunities on the market as they arise and is committed to continuing providing superior services to its clients while remaining focused on risk and capital management,” said Phillip Madinga, the bank’s managing director (MD).

First Discount House—the only discount house in the country—continued to display its strong performance.

In the year under review, the discount house grew its total revenues by 45 percent with a profit after-tax of K777 million, a 55 percent growth over December 2013 results.

“Despite a continuously changing operating environment, our customer-centric approach has enabled us to adapt, innovate and introduce new products and services on the market”, said Mike Chiwalo, MD for the discount house.

FDH group, as an amalgamation of financial institutions, has positioned itself for more positive results this year and owes its success to its customers, shareholders, management and staff, as well as Malawi Government and RBM.

“With the elections behind us and the majority of the strikes in the process of being addressed by government and other statutory boards, we continue to anticipate improvements in the operating environment this year with a few challenges flowing over from the last.

“We are expecting interest rates to soon continue on a downward trend with inflation following a similar path. We, therefore, expect a similar, if not better performance in 2015 from the group,” said Mpinganjira.