REG - ASA Intnl. Grp PLC - March 2021 business update
20/04/2021 07:00
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RNS Number : 9550V ASA International Group PLC 20 April 2021
ASA International Group plc March 2021 business update
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 20 April 2021 - 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 31 March 2021.
· Liquidity continues to remain high with approximately USD 107m of
unrestricted cash and cash equivalents across the Group on 31 March 2021.
· The pipeline of funding deals under negotiation totalled
approximately USD 180m.
· With the exception of India, the Philippines, and Myanmar, all other
operating companies achieved collection efficiency of more than 90% and 9 out
of 13 countries achieved collection efficiency of more than 95%.
· India collections continued to steadily improve reaching 88%, despite
ongoing challenges in the operating environment concerning Assam and West
Bengal.
· The Philippines improved collections to 88% and granted minimal
moratoriums to 793 clients for a total amount of USD 16k within the month.
· Collections in Myanmar decreased to 66% due to the disruptions
following the military's takeover of the Government and ongoing nation-wide
protests.
· Portfolio quality remained challenging, particularly in India and the
Philippines with benchmark PAR>30 for the Group, including off-book loans
and excluding loans overdue more than 365 days, slightly improving to 14.3%
from 15.7% in February 2021, and PAR>90 remaining at 9.3%. The Group's
operating subsidiaries, excluding India, the Philippines and Myanmar,
collectively have been able to maintain PAR>30 at 4.2%.
· Kenya and Uganda continued to see significant improvements in their
portfolio quality as also reflected in higher collection efficiency in recent
months.
· Disbursements as percentage of collections exceeded 100% in eight
countries with lower percentages in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines,
Myanmar, and Rwanda.
· As a result, the number of clients and Gross OLP continued to
gradually increase reaching approximately 2.5m and USD 484m (6% higher than in
March 2020 and 6% higher compared to February 2021), respectively, across the
Group.
· The moratoriums granted amounted to USD 1.6m, primarily related to
ongoing disruption to the operations in Myanmar.
Health impact of COVID-19 on staff and clients
· The immediate health impact of COVID-19 on the Company's operations
remained low with only 135 of over 12,500 staff members confirmed as infected
since March 2020, but with no deaths. Since March 2020, confirmed infections
amongst 2.5m clients increased from 1,656 at end of February 2021 to 1,700 as
at 31 March 2021, resulting in 37 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Funding
· Unrestricted cash and cash equivalents remained high at approximately
USD 107m.
· The Company secured approximately USD 31m of new loans from local and
international lenders in March 2021.
· The majority of the Company's USD 180m pipeline of future wholesale
loans are supported by (agreed) term sheets and/or draft loan documentations.
The terms and conditions of the remaining loans are being negotiated with
lenders.
Collection efficiency until 31 March 2021((1, 2))
Countries 01-15 Jan 16-31 Jan 01-15 Feb 16-28 Feb 01-15 Mar 16-31 Mar
India 81% 83% 84% 84% 86% 88%
Pakistan 98% 98% 99% 99% 99% 99%
Sri Lanka 100% 94% 86% 93% 90% 91%
The Philippines 71% 80% 77% 82% 83% 88%
Myanmar 90% 89% 80% 76% 52% 66%
Nigeria 93% 97% 96% 97% 95% 96%
Ghana 99% 99% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Sierra Leone 95% 95% 84% 94% 92% 99%
Kenya 96% 97% 98% 99% 100% 100%
Tanzania 99% 99% 99% 100% 100% 100%
Uganda 85% 89% 91% 94% 98% 99%
Rwanda 93% 93% 89% 93% 94% 97%
Zambia 99% 100% 99% 100% 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) )As of December 2020, the definition of collection
efficiency has been amended in view of the increased amount of overdue
collection and advance payments in various countries to: the sum of actual
regular collections, actual overdue collections and actual advance payments
divided by the sum of expected regular collections, actual overdue collections
and actual advance payments. This also means that collections efficiency no
longer can exceed 100%.
· Collection efficiency across the Group increased or remained stable
in all countries with the exception of Myanmar.
· Collections in India improved to 88%, despite the political
environment remaining challenging due to possible government intervention in
Assam (approximately 16% of ASA India's loan portfolio) after scheduled
elections and reduced collections in various semi-suburban regions of West
Bengal.
· Collections continued to improve in the Philippines despite a few
local lockdowns implemented.
· Collections in Myanmar decreased to 66% due to disruptions to the
ordinary life of citizens caused by the military's takeover of the Government
and ongoing nation-wide protests.
Loan portfolio quality up to and including March 2021((3, 4))
Gross OLP (in USDm) Non-overdue loans PAR>30
Jan/21 Feb/21 Mar/21 Jan/21 Feb/21 Mar/21 Jan/21 Feb/21 Mar/21
India (total) 167 168 182 61.5% 64.5% 69.4% 30.7% 29.6% 27.9%
On-book 119 121 134 60.2% 63.5% 69.3% 32.6% 31.3% 26.7%
Off-book 48 47 48 64.7% 67.3% 69.9% 25.9% 25.3% 23.4%
Pakistan 66 69 74 95.5% 96.2% 96.7% 3.5% 3.1% 2.8%
Sri Lanka 9 9 9 90.3% 90.6% 89.4% 6.6% 5.9% 4.9%
Philippines 50 51 53 71.9% 73.8% 76.2% 6.0% 23.3% 22.5%
Myanmar 33 30 31 99.1% 84.1% 48.9% 0.5% 0.6% 4.4%
Ghana 42 45 47 99.4% 99.4% 99.5% 0.4% 0.4% 0.3%
Nigeria 31 32 33 91.4% 91.5% 91.5% 5.7% 5.5% 5.3%
Sierra Leone 4 5 5 89.8% 91.3% 92.1% 4.8% 4.6% 4.6%
Kenya 13 14 15 79.3% 82.9% 84.9% 19.5% 16.4% 14.0%
Uganda 7 8 8 71.0% 76.5% 81.1% 28.6% 23.3% 18.7%
Tanzania 22 22 24 97.1% 97.4% 97.7% 2.4% 2.3% 2.1%
Rwanda 3 3 3 86.2% 83.1% 85.8% 10.3% 10.7% 10.3%
Zambia 0 1 1 94.7% 95.6% 98.4% 5.1% 4.3% 1.6%
Group 449 457 484 79.6% 80.3% 80.3% 14.5% 15.7% 14.3%
PAR>90 PAR>180
Jan/21 Feb/21 Mar/21 Jan/21 Feb/21 Mar/21
India (total) 17.0% 18.9% 20.0% 1.2% 1.5% 6.4%
On-book 18.6% 20.7% 19.7% 1.5% 1.7% 6.4%
Off-book 13.2% 14.5% 15.2% 0.6% 0.9% 4.5%
Pakistan 2.9% 2.7% 2.6% 2.0% 2.0% 2.1%
Sri Lanka 5.9% 5.2% 3.9% 2.7% 2.8% 2.9%
Philippines 3.7% 3.8% 3.9% 1.4% 1.6% 1.8%
Myanmar 0.4% 0.4% 3.4% 0.2% 0.3% 1.9%
Ghana 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3%
Nigeria 4.8% 4.5% 4.2% 2.6% 2.9% 3.2%
Sierra Leone 3.3% 3.1% 3.2% 1.9% 2.0% 2.0%
Kenya 18.2% 15.9% 13.8% 2.9% 7.1% 13.5%
Uganda 19.7% 20.8% 18.4% 0.4% 0.6% 2.8%
Tanzania 2.1% 2.1% 1.9% 0.9% 1.3% 1.5%
Rwanda 7.8% 8.8% 8.4% 0.8% 0.8% 3.2%
Zambia 4.9% 4.2% 1.5% 3.7% 3.4% 0.7%
Group 8.7% 9.3% 9.3% 1.3% 1.7% 3.7%
((3) )PAR>x is the percentage of outstanding customer loans with at least
one instalment payment overdue x days, excluding loans more than 365 days
overdue, to gross outstanding loan portfolio including off-book loans.
((4) )Gross loan portfolio includes the off-book BC and DA model, excluding
interest receivable and before deducting ECL provisions and modification loss.
· PAR>30 improved to 14.3% primarily due to the improvements in
collections seen across the Group, with the exception of Myanmar.
· PAR>90 remained at 9.3% for the Group primarily due to the large
amount of overdue in India.
· Credit exposure of the India off-book BC portfolio of USD 45m is
capped at 5%. The included off-book DA portfolio of USD 3m has no credit
exposure.
Disbursements vs collections of loans until 31 March 2021((5))
Countries 01-15 Jan 16-31 Jan 01-15 Feb 16-28 Feb 01-15 Mar 16-31 Mar
India 83% 96% 92% 116% 118% 143%
Pakistan 95% 99% 99% 99% 99% 99%
Sri Lanka 61% 129% 88% 145% 98% 86%
The Philippines 124% 102% 94% 107% 100% 93%
Myanmar 130% 158% 32% 78% 80% 61%
Nigeria 35% 100% 106% 104% 106% 112%
Ghana 68% 119% 108% 116% 112% 123%
Sierra Leone 53% 124% 103% 114% 113% 107%
Kenya 67% 126% 109% 117% 102% 112%
Tanzania 61% 96% 94% 101% 94% 109%
Uganda 20% 71% 93% 105% 92% 105%
Rwanda 56% 64% 62% 83% 81% 91%
Zambia 114% 160% 142% 137% 103% 126%
((5)) 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 continuing to gradually improve in most
countries, disbursements of new loans continued to increase in amount and as a
percentage of weekly collections, with the exception of Sri Lanka, the
Philippines, and Myanmar.
Development of Clients and Outstanding Loan Portfolio( )until 31 March 2021
Clients (in thousands) Delta Gross OLP (in USDm) Delta
Countries Mar/20 Feb/21 Mar/21 Mar/20- Mar/21 Feb/21- Mar/21 Mar/20 Feb/21 Mar/21 Mar/20- Mar/21 USD Mar/20- Mar/21 CC((6)) Feb/21- Mar/21 USD
India 741 729 748 1% 3% 180 168 182 1% -1% 8%
Pakistan 438 432 442 1% 2% 60 69 74 23% 13% 7%
Sri Lanka 62 57 58 -7% 1% 10 9 9 -5% 0% -1%
The Philippines 341 313 319 -6% 2% 53 51 53 0% -4% 4%
Myanmar 151 128 131 -14% 2% 35 30 31 -13% -11% 1%
Nigeria 252 256 258 2% 1% 29 32 33 15% 16% 3%
Ghana 154 154 155 1% 0% 39 44 47 22% 21% 5%
Sierra Leone 35 38 39 11% 2% 3 5 5 53% 61% 7%
Kenya 100 99 102 2% 4% 15 14 15 -1% 3% 6%
Tanzania 121 129 133 9% 3% 19 22 24 22% 22% 5%
Uganda 98 81 83 -15% 2% 9 8 8 -13% -16% 5%
Rwanda 21 18 18 -13% -1% 3 3 3 -4% 1% 1%
Zambia 4 6 7 84% 9% 0 1 1 79% 120% 5%
Total 2,518 2,440 2,492 -1% 2% 456 457 484 6% 4% 6%
((6)) Constant currency ('CC') implies conversion of local currency results to
USD with the exchange rate from the beginning of the period.
· With disbursements gradually increasing at many operating companies,
Gross OLP increased 6% to USD 484m in March 2021 compared to the previous
month and ended up 6% higher than March 2020 in USD.
Selected moratoriums((7)) on loan repayments until 31 March 2021
Clients under moratorium
Countries Jan/21 Feb/21 Mar/21 As % of Total Clients
India 0 0 0 0%
Pakistan 0 0 0 0%
Sri Lanka 9,010 5,114 0 0%
The Philippines 0 835 793 0%
Myanmar 17,563 38,597 63,074 48%
Nigeria 0 0 0 0%
Ghana 0 0 0 0%
Sierra Leone 0 0 0 0%
Kenya 0 0 0 0%
Tanzania 0 0 0 0%
Uganda 0 0 0 0%
Rwanda 0 0 0 0%
Zambia 0 0 0 0%
Total 26,573 44,546 63,867 2.6%
Moratorium amounts (USD thousands)
Countries Jan/21 Feb/21 Mar/21 Total since Mar/20 March moratoriums as % of OLP As % of Total Moratoriums
India 0 0 0 14,938 0% 23%
Pakistan 0 0 0 0 0% 0%
Sri Lanka 168 96 0 2,021 0% 3%
The Philippines 0 20 16 26,550 0% 40%
Myanmar 402 959 1,582 11,387 5% 17%
Nigeria 0 0 0 1,034 0% 2%
Ghana 0 0 0 0 0% 0%
Sierra Leone 0 0 0 50 0% 0%
Kenya 0 0 0 4,760 0% 7%
Tanzania 0 0 0 266 0% 0%
Uganda 0 0 0 4,716 0% 7%
Rwanda 0 0 0 578 0% 1%
Zambia 0 0 0 0 0% 0%
Total 569 1,075 1,598 66,300 0.3% 100.0%
( )((7)) Moratoriums relate to clients who have received an extension for the
payment of one or more loan instalments during the month.
· Moratoriums on loan repayments were granted primarily to clients in
Myanmar, and a few clients in the Philippines and amounted to USD 1.6m in
total, which represents 0.3% of the Group's Gross OLP.
· Moratoriums granted in Myanmar increased compared to the previous
month, due to disruption in operations following the military's takeover of
the Government and ongoing nation-wide protests.
Please note that, while the Company's operational performance appears to
gradually normalize in most countries, the risk of further challenges to our
operations should not be underestimated due to (i) the still relatively high,
and in some countries increasing, infection rates, (ii) the current lack of
available vaccines in most of our operating countries, (iii) the risk of the
introduction of more infectious COVID-19 variants in our operating countries
as have been observed in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, and, most
recently, the Philippines, and (iv) the associated disruption this may cause
to the businesses of our clients.
Notice of Full Year Results
As announced on 23 March 2021, the Company expects to announce its results for
the year ended 31 December 2020 in mid-May 2021. The date will be confirmed in
due course.
---
Enquiries:
ASA International Group plc
Investor
Relations
+31 6 2030 0139
Véronique
Schyns
vschyns@asa-international.com
(mailto: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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