Fimbank

FIMBank plc

A Global Force in Trade Finance
Type	Public Limited Company
Traded as	MSE: FIM
Industry	Trade Finance Banking
Founded	licensed in 1994, operations started in 1995 (Malta)
Headquarters	St. Julian's, Malta
Key people	Murali Subramanian (Chief Executive Officer) John C. Grech (Chairman)
Products	Financial services, Structured trade and commodity finance, Forfaiting, Factoring, Corporate Banking,
Net income	-50.3 mln USD (2014)[1]
Total assets	1.2 bln USD (2014)[1]
Number of employees	200 (2015)
Website	www.fimbank.com

FIMBank plc is a Maltese specialist trade finance bank headquartered in St. Julian's.The FIMBank Group benefits from an international network located in 15 financial and trading centres and distributed across five continents.^[2] The bank specialises in international trade finance, forfaiting, and factoring and is at the forefront in the introduction and development of receivable finance techniques particularly in emerging markets.^[3]

History

The FIMBank Group saw its beginning in 1994 with the establishment of First International Merchant Bank Ltd. In June 2001, the shares of First International Merchant Bank p.l.c. were listed on the Malta Stock Exchange and four years later the Bank changed its name to FIMBank p.l.c. In 2003, FIMBank acquired full control of UK registered London Forfaiting Company Ltd

On 13 March 2012 it was announced that the Bank's largest shareholder Massaleh Investments K.S.C.C. had granted Burgan Bank of Kuwait the right to acquire its holding in the Bank equivalent to 38.8% of the Bank’s issued share capital. On its part, Burgan Bank has informed the FIMBank Board of Directors of its intention to inject new equity in FIMBank which would see it increase its prospective holding to above 50% of the Bank’s issued share capital. During an Extraordinary General Meeting convened on 31 January 2013 an overwhelming majority of FIMBank plc shareholders approved two resolutions which enabled Burgan Bank of Kuwait and United Gulf Bank B.S.C. of Bahrain both members of KIPCO to acquire a controlling interest in the company, subject to regulatory approval from Malta, Kuwait and Bahrain. As at 16 July 2014, FIMBank plc's issued share capital total was of 263,446,930 fully paid Ordinary shares of USD0.50 each with United Gulf Bank holding 63.05% and Burgan Bank holding 20.32%. On the 8 August 2014 informed the market that subsequent to the Rights Issue an additional 7,692,307 FIMBank plc ordinary shares were admitted to the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange.^[4]

The Bank has a long-term partnership with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and has made its mark on the international factoring sector by offering a complete portfolio of factoring services and actively pursuing a strategy of establishing factoring operations in selected emerging markets. The IFC invested in 2005 into the bank as shareholder and exited FIMBank as shareholder in 2015. Today FIMBank’s international network includes MENAFactors in Dubai, Egypt Factors in Egypt, Levant Factors in Lebanon, India Factoring in India, BrasilFactors in Brazil, LATAM Factors (formerly First Factors) in Chile. On the 10 March 2015, the Bank's Board of Directors approved decisions that included the consolidation of the Group footprint including a discontinuation of the investment in Factorus (Russia) which will no longer form part of the Group's investment strategy. ^[5][6]

In 2014 FIMBank experienced significant impairment events across various Group entities, making the year one of the most challenging in the Group's existence. The Group’s positive operating results were wiped out by impairments of USD 51 million, emanating from its subsidiaries, India Factoring and Factorrus in Russia, but also from FIMBank’s solo performance. As a result, the Group registered an after-tax loss of USD45.23 million, compared to a loss of USD4.22 million in 2013. The Consolidated Audited Financial Statements for 2014, published on the 11th March 2015, show considerable growth in the Group’s Balance Sheet during that year, with Consolidated Assets as at 31 December 2014 standing at USD1.41 billion, an increase of 14% over the USD1.24 billion reported at end 2013. Consolidated Liabilities stood at USD1.23 billion, an increase of 13% over end-2013. Net Operating Income increased at both Group and Bank level, helped by markedly improved net interest margins, contrasted by weaker net fee income. In fact, Net Interest Income rose by 77.9%, from USD 15.9 million to USD 28.4 million, while Net Fee and Commission income decreased by 9.3%, from USD 22.9 million to USD 20.76 million. FIMBank Group liquidity remains strong, while capital adequacy, measured in terms of Basle III/CRD 4 requirements, stood at 13.8% for Total Capital, of which 13.3% is Tier 1 - significantly above the minimum regulatory requirement.^[7][8]

In January 2015 Fitch Ratings downgraded FIMBank's long-term issuer default rating (IDR) to 'BB-' from 'BB', with a stable outlook, and viability rating (VR) from 'bb-' to 'bb'.The stable outlook on the long-term IDR reflected Fitch's belief that the Bank's capital would continue to be supported by its ultimate owners, the KIPCO group, in the foreseeable future, potentially easing further pressures from asset quality and profitability.^[9]

In August 2015 the bank announced the appointment of Murali Subramanian as the CEO,^[10] replacing Simon Lay who had managed the company in the role of acting CEO for the earlier part of 2015. Simon continues to retain the role of Managing Director of LFC. Murali is a career banker in the corporate banking and trade finance area, having worked with Citibank, ABN Amro and an Abu Dhabi based bank over his 28 year career. Murali is based at the Group's Head Office in Malta.

Structure

FIMBank is headquartered in Malta and operates through its network in London, New York, Athens, São Paulo, Moscow, Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul, Santiago, Singapore, Paris, Cologne, Mumbai and Dubai, servicing clients in more than 50 countries.^[11] FIMBank is listed on the Malta Stock Exchange with symbol FIM^[2] and is regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority.^[5] FIMBank is a member of the Depositor Compensation Scheme in Malta ^[12] FIMBank is a member of the KIPCO Group.^[13]

London Forfaiting Company Ltd (LFC) which was founded in 1984 is a fully owned subsidiary of the Bank. LFC is a market leader in the forfaiting market with the main activities being the purchasing of bills of exchange, promissory notes, deferred payment letters of credit and transferable financial loans from exporters or their banks.^[14] FIMBank provides commodity trade finance, ship finance, warehouse finance, international cross-border payment services (SWIFT wire-transfers), fixed term deposits in all major currencies, call accounts, counter/barter trade facilities, syndication/risk participations, bonds and guarantees, factoring, forfaiting and other banking services.^[7]

The current organizational structure (Dec 2015) is displayed on the official website http://www.fimbank.com/file.aspx?f=1803

References

External links

• Official site
• Interview with FIMBank Chairman 31 January 2013
• Interview with FIMBank President and Vice Chairman 31 January 2013
• Interview with Burgan Bank CEO 31 January 2013
• FIMBank Corporate Feature 6 September 2013