November 2020 business update

RNS Number : 9310I
ASA International Group PLC
17 December 2020
 

 

ASA International Group plc November 2020 business update

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 17 December 2020 - ASA International, ("ASA International", the "Company" or the "Group"), one of the world's largest international microfinance institutions, today provides the following update of the impact of COVID-19 on its business operations as at 30 November 2020.

· The immediate health impact of COVID-19 on the Company's operations remains low.

· Liquidity continues to remain high with approximately USD 100m of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents across the Group on 30 November 2020.

· The pipeline of funding deals under negotiation totalled approximately USD 230m.

· 9 out of 13 operating countries showed collections percentage rates in the mid to high nineties.

· India continues to struggle with collections remaining in the high seventies.

· The Philippines continued to gradually improve collections in November despite a difficult business environment amongst others due to the damage caused by the three recent typhoons hitting Luzon Island and the 60-days grace period for the repayment of loan instalments instituted by the government until the end of December.

· Collections were not possible in 56 branches based in Yangon and Bago division in Myanmar, due to lockdowns instituted by the Government in these regions until the end of December. In other regions of Myanmar collections were close to 90%.

· Collection efficiency continued to improve in Kenya and Uganda.

· Disbursements as percentage of collections exceeded 100% in many countries with the exception of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

· As a result, the number of clients and Gross OLP continued to gradually increase reaching approximately 2.4m and USD 439m, respectively, across the Group.

· The Moratoriums granted for November amounted to USD 5.5m and stemmed from the operations in the Philippines and Myanmar.

 

Health impact of COVID-19 on our communities

 

· The immediate health impact of COVID-19 on the Company's operations remain ed low with 91 of our over 12,500 staff members confirmed as infected since March 2020 , but with no deaths . Since March 2020, confirmed infections amongst our 2.4m clients increased from 1,192 at end of October to 1,383 as at 30 November 2020, resulting in 23 deaths.

Funding

· Unrestricted cash and cash equivalents remained high at approximately USD 100m.

· The Company secured approximately USD 7.1m of new loans from local and international lenders in November 2020.

· The majority of the Company's USD 232.2m pipeline of future wholesale loans are supported by (agreed) term sheets and/or draft loan documentation. The terms and conditions of the remaining loans are being negotiated with lenders.

Collection efficiency until 30 November 2020 (1, 2)  

Country

01-07 Aug

08-14 Aug

15-22 Aug

23-29 Aug

30 Aug-05 Sep

06-12 Sep

13-19 Sep

20-30 Sep

01-15 Oct

16-31 Oct

01-15 Nov

16-30 Nov

India

41%

49%

53%

58%

60%

68%

78%

74%

77%

76%

78%

77%

Pakistan

96%

96%

96%

94%

96%

96%

96%

97%

97%

97%

97%

97%

Sri Lanka

93%

92%

95%

95%

94%

91%

96%

99%

90%

83%

79%

96%

The Philippines

70%

65%

65%

67%

67%

68%

69%

74%

65%

68%

69%

75%

Myanmar

96%

96%

97%

97%

95%

93%

91%

78%

65%

75%

86%

88%

Nigeria

90%

94%

90%

90%

91%

91%

91%

93%

93%

94%

94%

95%

Ghana

101%

100%

99%

99%

99%

99%

99%

100%

99%

100%

100%

100%

Sierra Leone

94%

96%

96%

97%

94%

97%

96%

99%

99%

99%

93%

96%

Kenya

69%

73%

70%

74%

76%

76%

77%

81%

84%

91%

95%

110%

Tanzania

100%

98%

98%

98%

98%

98%

99%

99%

99%

99%

99%

100%

Uganda

57%

63%

63%

63%

65%

67%

72%

73%

72%

78%

82%

90%

Rwanda

88%

89%

86%

82%

85%

84%

88%

87%

86%

91%

93%

96%

Zambia

99%

99%

99%

99%

100%

100%

100%

100%

99%

99%

100%

100%

 

(1)  Collection efficiency refers to actual collections from clients divided by expected collections for the period; since any moratorium on the repayment of loans are only granted to clients after the end of the month, the collection efficiency is not affected by the grant of such moratorium.

(2)  Collection efficiency in Myanmar excludes the branches in Yangon and Bago Region, which are under strict lockdowns in November and December.

· Collection efficiency across the Group remained high with 9 out of 13 operating countries showing percentage rates in the mid to high nineties.

· In India, collections remained stable with many clients still struggling to pay instalments on time due to the disruption caused by COVID-19, the long duration of the lockdown and subsequent moratoriums, and natural calamities (cyclone Amphan and flooding in Assam).

· In the Philippines, the government imposed a 60-day grace period for the repayment of loans until the end of December 2020. In addition, there is ongoing disruption caused by limited, regional lockdowns in certain parts of the country. The Philippines is recovering from three typhoons which hit Luzon Island in quick succession recently and which caused substantial disruption to our clients' businesses on top of the existing disruption already caused by COVID-19.

· Collections were not possible in Yangon and Bago divisions in Myanmar due to the institution of a two-months lockdown starting November. In other regions of Myanmar collections were close to 90%.

· Kenya and Uganda significantly improved collections reaching 110% and 90%, respectively.

 

Disbursements vs collections of loans until 30 November 2020(3)

 

Country

01-07 Aug

08-14 Aug

15-22 Aug

23-29 Aug

30 Aug-05 Sep

06-12 Sep

13-19 Sep

20-30 Sep

01-15 Oct

16-31 Oct

01-15 Nov

16-30 Nov

India

54%

70%

78%

74%

75%

79%

78%

91%

91%

68%

81%

72%

Pakistan

72%

85%

90%

91%

95%

89%

93%

99%

99%

99%

99%

99%

Sri Lanka

8%

74%

128%

145%

64%

118%

122%

144%

17%

135%

45%

89%

The Philippines

57%

51%

70%

79%

77%

80%

90%

111%

74%

96%

55%

107%

Myanmar

73%

101%

114%

122%

97%

104%

103%

63%

24%

44%

88%

132%

Nigeria

67%

96%

104%

104%

87%

115%

129%

139%

152%

136%

172%

162%

Ghana

120%

120%

112%

117%

113%

115%

123%

119%

116%

95%

118%

112%

Sierra Leone

110%

131%

139%

97%

105%

117%

115%

123%

123%

116%

100%

101%

Kenya

85%

87%

99%

101%

93%

95%

101%

108%

92%

103%

91%

110%

Tanzania

104%

121%

116%

112%

97%

107%

111%

119%

101%

106%

93%

90%

Uganda

42%

75%

78%

69%

65%

68%

69%

66%

88%

95%

95%

100%

Rwanda

88%

93%

79%

87%

81%

79%

84%

81%

83%

87%

102%

112%

Zambia

136%

184%

181%

188%

129%

178%

151%

85%

93%

86%

85%

109%

 

(3) Disbursements vs collections refers to actual loan disbursements made to clients divided by total loans collected from clients in the period.

 

· With the business environment improving in many countries, disbursements of fresh loans continued to increase in amount and as a percentage of weekly collections.

 

Development of Clients and Outstanding Loan Portfolio(4) until 30 November 2020

 

 Clients (in thousands)

 

 Delta

 

 Gross OLP (in USDm)

 

 Delta

Countries

Dec/19

Oct/20

Nov/20

 

Dec-Nov

Oct-Nov

 

Dec/19

Oct/20

Nov/20

 

Dec- Nov USD

Dec- Nov CC

Oct-Nov USD

India

732

713

713

 

-3%

0%

 

183.0

166.3

165.6

 

-9%

-6%

0%

Pakistan

439

409

416

 

-5%

2%

 

62.9

58.4

62.3

 

-1%

2%

7%

Sri Lanka

63

56

55

 

-12%

-2%

 

10.1

9.0

8.8

 

-13%

-11%

-3%

The Philippines

340

278

292

 

-14%

5%

 

53.2

47.2

48.5

 

-9%

-13%

3%

Myanmar

152

128

128

 

-16%

0%

 

31.7

30.4

30.1

 

-5%

-16%

-1%

Nigeria

260

228

253

 

-3%

11%

 

33.5

28.1

32.8

 

-2%

3%

17%

Ghana

165

151

158

 

-4%

5%

 

41.7

40.6

40.4

 

-3%

-1%

0%

Sierra Leone

34

35

37

 

8%

5%

 

2.9

4.2

4.5

 

53%

57%

6%

Kenya

101

86

90

 

-11%

5%

 

17.7

12.8

13.1

 

-26%

-20%

2%

Tanzania

123

108

116

 

-5%

8%

 

20.5

20.5

21.1

 

3%

4%

3%

Uganda

101

81

82

 

-19%

1%

 

10.4

7.9

8.3

 

-20%

-19%

5%

Rwanda

21

19

19

 

-9%

2%

 

3.0

2.6

2.7

 

-9%

-5%

5%

Zambia

2

5

5

 

172%

11%

 

0.2

0.4

0.4

 

121%

228%

2%

Total

2,533

2,297

2,364

 

-7%

3%

 

471

428

439

 

-7%

-5%

2%

 

(4) Loan portfolio including the off-book BC and DA model, excluding interest receivable and before deducting the ECL provision and modification loss.

· Disbursements as percentage of collections exceeded 100% in many countries with the exception of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

· With disbursements gradually increasing in many operating countries, Gross OLP  increased to USD 439m (up 2%) in November 2020 compared to the previous month.

Selected moratorium(5) on loan repayments until 30 November 2020

 

 Clients under moratorium

As % of

Countries

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Total Clients

India

0

0

0

182,318

181,878

165,618

0

0

0

0%

Pakistan

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0%

Sri Lanka

0

0

0

37,891

9,002

78

116

23,430

0

0%

The Philippines

1,297

0

57,130

145,086

65,405

59,626

100,427

95,241

98,337

34%

Myanmar

2,307

2,101

35,056

12,394

7,876

15,308

32,118

64,501

11,461

9%

Nigeria

0

0

4,042

10,523

9,763

0

0

0

0

0%

Ghana

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0%

Sierra Leone

0

91

1,225

1,336

1,178

0

0

0

0

0%

Kenya

20,453

17,366

9,660

7,778

26,697

0

0

0

0

0%

Tanzania

0

194

5,323

4,162

0

0

0

0

0

0%

Uganda

8,269

0

0

75,360

59,563

49,897

3,557

0

0

0%

Rwanda

436

0

7,746

7,886

4,703

2,800

0

0

0

0%

Zambia

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0%

Total

32,762

19,752

120,182

484,734

366,065

293,327

136,218

183,172

109,798

4.6%

 

 

Moratorium amounts (in USD thousands)

 

November moratoriums as % of OLP

As % of Total Moratoriums

Countries

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Total

India

0

0

0

5,831

5,368

3,658

0

0

0

14,857

0%

25%

Pakistan

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0%

0%

Sri Lanka

0

0

0

1,153

248

2

24

262

0

1,688

0%

3%

The Philippines

16

0

935

6,300

2,128

2,272

3,961

4,943

5,165

25,719

11%

44%

Myanmar

42

43

719

341

249

401

862

1,938

306

4,900

1%

8%

Nigeria

0

0

137

466

431

0

0

0

0

1,034

0%

2%

Ghana

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0%

0%

Sierra Leone

0

1

10

19

20

0

0

0

0

51

0%

0%

Kenya

667

427

2,122

722

797

0

0

0

0

4,735

0%

8%

Tanzania

0

5

147

115

0

0

0

0

0

267

0%

0%

Uganda

77

0

0

1,718

1,553

1,169

156

0

0

4,673

0%

8%

Rwanda

4

0

159

216

124

74

0

0

0

577

0%

1%

Zambia

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0%

0%

Total

806

476

4,229

16,879

10,918

7,577

5,003

7,143

5,471

58,501

1.2%

100.0%

                   

(5) Moratoriums relate to clients who have received an extension for the payment of one or more loan instalments during the month.

· The moratorium on loan repayments were granted to clients in the Philippines and Myanmar and amounted to USD 5.5m, which represents 1.2% of the Group's Gross OLP.

---

 

 

Enquiries:

ASA International Group plc

Investor Relations      +31 6 2030 0139

Véronique Schyns    vschyns@asa-international.com

 

About ASA International Group plc

ASA International is one of the world's largest international microfinance institutions, with a strong commitment to financial inclusion and socioeconomic progress. The company provides small, socially responsible loans to low-income, financially underserved entrepreneurs, predominantly women, across South Asia, South East Asia, West and East Africa.

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