December 2020 business update

RNS Number : 0969M

ASA International Group PLC

19 January 2021

 

ASA International Group plc December 2020 business update

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 19 January 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 December 2020.

· Liquidity continues to remain high with approximately USD 101m of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents across the Group on 31 December 2020.

· The pipeline of funding deals under negotiation totalled approximately USD 225m.

· With the exception of India, the Philippines and Uganda, all other operating countries achieved collection efficiency of more than 90% in December.

· India increased collections by 5% to 82% by year-end 2020, but collections may be adversely affected in early 2021 due to local Government proposed regulatory changes in Assam, which currently represents 16% of its loan portfolio.

· The Philippines marginally improved collections to 76% by mid-December and was required to grant a moratorium to 57.5K clients for a total amount of USD 2.3m, primarily due to the Government imposed 60-day grace period for the repayment of loans by clients.

· Uganda was not able to increase its collection efficiency in December, primarily due to the unrest in the country ahead of the scheduled Presidential elections and Christmas festivities.

· Collections stopped 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 91%.

· Disbursements as percentage of collections exceeded 100% in many countries with the exception of India, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

· As a result, the number of clients and Gross OLP continued to gradually increase reaching approximately 2.4m and USD 447m (5% less than year-end 2019), respectively, across the Group.

· The Moratoriums granted for December amounted to USD 6.5m and were limited to the operations in the Philippines (60-day grace period), Myanmar (lockdown Yangon and Bago Regions) and Sri Lanka (various branches under curfew).

Health impact of COVID-19 on our communities

· The immediate health impact of COVID-19 on the Company's operations remain ed low with 97 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 1,383 at end of November to 1,536 as at 31 December 2020, resulting in 25 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Funding

· Unrestricted cash and cash equivalents remain high at approximately USD 101m at year-end 2020.

· The Company secured approximately USD 14m of new loans from local and international lenders in December 2020.

· The majority of the Company's USD 225m 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 31 December 2020 ^{(1, 2, 3)}  

Country	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	01-15 Dec	16-30 Dec
India	60%	68%	78%	74%	77%	76%	78%	77%	79%	82%
Pakistan	96%	96%	96%	97%	97%	97%	97%	97%	98%	96%
Sri Lanka	94%	91%	96%	99%	90%	83%	79%	94%	94%	96%
The Philippines	67%	68%	69%	74%	65%	68%	69%	75%	76%	59%
Myanmar	95%	93%	91%	78%	65%	75%	86%	88%	90%	91%
Nigeria	91%	91%	91%	93%	93%	94%	94%	95%	96%	97%
Ghana	99%	99%	99%	100%	99%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Sierra Leone	94%	97%	96%	99%	99%	99%	94%	91%	96%	90%
Kenya	76%	76%	77%	81%	84%	91%	95%	90%	92%	97%
Tanzania	98%	98%	99%	99%	99%	99%	99%	100%	100%	99%
Uganda	65%	67%	72%	73%	72%	78%	82%	80%	83%	82%
Rwanda	85%	84%	88%	87%	86%	91%	93%	88%	90%	92%
Zambia	100%	100%	100%	100%	99%	99%	100%	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)  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%. (3)  Collection efficiency in Myanmar excludes the branches in Yangon and Bago Region, which were under strict lockdown in November and December.

· Collection efficiency across the Group increased in December in all countries with the exception of the Philippines and Uganda, which was partly caused by Christmas celebrations during the last two weeks of December and unrest in Uganda ahead of the scheduled Presidential elections.

· Collections in India increased by 5% in December, but the environment remains challenging with planned Government intervention in Assam (approximately 16% of ASA India's loan portfolio), which may adversely affect collections once effective.

· In the Philippines, the government imposed a 60-day grace period for the repayment of loans until the end of December 2020 and the ongoing disruption caused by limited, regional lockdowns in certain parts of the country continued to adversely affect collections in December. In addition, the Philippines is also still recovering from the three typhoons that hit its operations in Q4 2020.

· Collections were not possible in Yangon and Bago divisions in Myanmar due to the institution of a two-months lockdown which started in November. In other regions of Myanmar collections were close to 91%. Collections in Yangon and Bago divisions started again in January.

· Kenya significantly improved collections reaching 97% by the of December 2020.

Disbursements vs collections of loans until 31 December 2020 ⁽⁴⁾

Country	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	01-15 Dec	16-30 Dec
India	75%	79%	78%	91%	91%	68%	81%	72%	79%	81%
Pakistan	95%	89%	93%	99%	99%	99%	99%	99%	99%	108%
Sri Lanka	64%	118%	122%	144%	17%	135%	45%	89%	108%	148%
The Philippines	77%	80%	90%	111%	74%	96%	55%	107%	99%	108%
Myanmar	97%	104%	103%	63%	24%	44%	88%	132%	110%	150%
Nigeria	87%	115%	129%	139%	152%	136%	172%	162%	139%	61%
Ghana	113%	115%	123%	119%	116%	95%	118%	112%	129%	117%
Sierra Leone	105%	117%	115%	123%	123%	116%	100%	101%	113%	104%
Kenya	93%	95%	101%	108%	92%	103%	91%	110%	122%	98%
Tanzania	97%	107%	111%	119%	101%	106%	93%	90%	100%	75%
Uganda	65%	68%	69%	66%	88%	95%	95%	100%	113%	35%
Rwanda	81%	79%	84%	81%	83%	87%	102%	112%	122%	102%
Zambia	129%	178%	151%	85%	93%	86%	85%	109%	110%	73%

(4) 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 improve in most countries, disbursements of fresh loans continued to increase in amount and as a percentage of weekly collections, with the exception of India, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. This was primarily due to Christmas festivities in some countries and Presidential elections in Uganda.

Development of Clients and Outstanding Loan Portfolio ⁽⁵⁾ until 31 December 2020

	Clients (in thousands)			Delta			Gross OLP (in USDm)			Delta
Countries	Dec/19	Nov/20	Dec/20	Dec/19- Dec/20	Nov/20- Dec/20		Dec/19	Nov/20	Dec/20	Dec/19- Dec/20 USD	Dec/19- Dec/20 CC	Nov/20- Dec/20 USD
India	732	713	714	-2%	0%		183.0	165.6	167.1	-9%	-7%	1%
Pakistan	439	416	421	-4%	1%		62.9	62.3	64.5	3%	6%	3%
Sri Lanka	63	55	56	-11%	1%		10.1	8.8	9.2	-9%	-7%	5%
The Philippines	340	292	299	-12%	2%		53.2	48.5	50.3	-5%	-10%	4%
Myanmar	152	128	129	-15%	1%		31.7	30.1	30.7	-3%	-13%	2%
Nigeria	260	253	253	-3%	0%		33.5	32.8	32.5	-3%	3%	-1%
Ghana	165	158	158	-4%	0%		41.7	40.4	42.5	2%	5%	5%
Sierra Leone	34	37	36	5%	-3%		2.9	4.5	4.3	45%	50%	-5%
Kenya	101	90	92	-9%	2%		17.7	13.1	13.1	-26%	-20%	0%
Tanzania	123	116	121	-2%	4%		20.5	21.1	21.6	5%	6%	2%
Uganda	101	82	81	-20%	-1%		10.4	8.3	8.2	-22%	-22%	-2%
Rwanda	21	19	19	-7%	2%		3.0	2.7	3.0	-1%	3%	8%
Zambia	2	5	5	169%	-1%		0.2	0.4	0.4	121%	231%	0%
Total	2,533	2,364	2,384	-6%	1%		471	439	447	-5%	-4%	2%

⁽⁵⁾ Gross loan portfolio including the off-book BC and DA model, excluding interest receivable and before deducting ECL provisions and modification loss.

· With disbursements gradually increasing in many operating countries , Gross OLP   increased to USD 447m (up 2%) in December 2020 compared to the previous month and ended up 5% below year-end 2019 in USD.

Selected moratorium ⁽⁶⁾ on loan repayments until 31 December 2020

		Clients under moratorium
Countries		Mar-Jun		Jul		Aug		Sep		Oct		Nov		Dec			As % of Total Clients
India		182,318		181,878		165,618		0		0		0		0			0%
Pakistan		0		0		0		0		0		0		0			0%
Sri Lanka		37,891		9,002		78		116		23,430		0		7,088			13%
The Philippines		203,513		65,405		59,626		100,427		95,241		80,800		57,509			19%
Myanmar		51,858		7,876		15,308		32,118		64,501		8,899		84,416			65%
Nigeria		14,565		9,763		0		0		0		0		0			0%
Ghana		0		0		0		0		0		0		0			0%
Sierra Leone		2,652		1,178		0		0		0		0		0			0%
Kenya		55,257		26,697		0		0		0		0		0			0%
Tanzania		9,679		0		0		0		0		0		0			0%
Uganda		83,629		59,563		49,897		3,557		0		0		0			0%
Rwanda		16,068		4,703		2,800		0		0		0		0			0%
Zambia		0		0		0		0		0		0		0			0%
Total		657,430		366,065		293,327		136,218		183,172		89,699		149,013			6.3%
	Moratorium amounts (in USD thousands)
Countries	Mar-Jun		Jul		Aug		Sep		Oct	Nov	Dec		Total		December moratoriums as % of OLP		As % of Total Moratoriums
India	5,831		5,437		3,705		0		0	0	0		14,973		0%		23%
Pakistan	0		0		0		0		0	0	0		0		0%		0%
Sri Lanka	1,153		248		2		24		262	0	130		1,820		1%		3%
The Philippines	7,266		2,132		2,277		3,969		4,954	3,935	2,285		26,818		5%		42%
Myanmar	1,128		245		395		849		1,909	240	4,068		8,834		13%		14%
Nigeria	597		427		0		0		0	0	0		1,023		0%		2%
Ghana	0		0		0		0		0	0	0		0		0%		0%
Sierra Leone	30		20		0		0		0	0	0		50		0%		0%
Kenya	3,976		805		0		0		0	0	0		4,781		0%		7%
Tanzania	267		0		0		0		0	0	0		267		0%		0%
Uganda	1,819		1,574		1,185		159		0	0	0		4,737		0%		7%
Rwanda	380		124		74		0		0	0	0		578		0%		1%
Zambia	0		0		0		0		0	0	0		0		0%		0%
Total	22,446		11,012		7,638		5,001		7,125	4,175	6,483		63,881		1.4%		100.0%

⁽⁶⁾ Moratoriums relate to clients who have received an extension for the payment of one or more loan instalments during the month.

· Moratorium on loan repayments were granted to clients in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Myanmar and amounted to USD 6.5m, which represents 1.4 % of the Group's Gross OLP for the month.

Please note that, while the Company's operational performance appears to gradually normalize, the risk of further challenges to our operations should not be underestimated due to (i) the still relatively high infection rates, (ii) the current lack of available vaccines in almost all our operating countries, (iii) the risk of the introduction of the more infectious COVID-19 variants in our operating countries as have been recently observed in the United Kingdom and South Africa, and (iv) the associated disruption this may cause to the businesses of our clients.

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Enquiries:

ASA International Group plc

Investor Relations      [phone]

Véronique Schyns     [e-mail]

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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