Letshego Nam struggles in half-year

Jo-Maré Duddy – Letshego Holdings Namibia’s cell captive arrangement with Hollard showed a massive drop in insurance income for the six months ended 30 June, resulting a drastic hit in operating profit for the past half-year.Letshego Holdings Namibia (LHN), listed on the Local Index of the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX), reported an operating profit of nearly N$147.6 million during the period under review – a drop of nearly N$87.5 million or 37.2% compared to the same six months in 2019.Analysts commenting on the latest interim results were perturbed by LHN management’s explanation of the lower figures. According to management, “higher loan write-offs as well as reduced insurance default cover premiums” caused the bleak results.“We have no transparency in these cell captive numbers, though and can only rely on the management comments,” PSG Namibia said. According to the analysts, LHN suffered a decline of N$97 million in dividend income from the cell captive arrangements.The insurance income is captured in LHN’s “other operating income” line in its income statement.“This line item decreased 74.4%, the result of clients’ repayment ability decreasing and thus LHN receiving a much lower dividend from this arrangement compared to 1H19 [the first six months of 2019],” Cirrus Securities said.“Management commented that this is due to higher loan write-offs as well as reduced insurance default cover premiums. We believe that this is exacerbated by more loans being extended under the banking license, without the same requirement for linked insurance products,” Cirrus added.Civil servantsIJG Securities also questioned management’s reasons for the drop in revenue.“This is somewhat baffling as the majority of LHN’s advances book are government employees who, unlike most of their private sector counterparts, received their full salaries despite the lockdown period and did not lose their jobs. The directors themselves said in the Annual Report released earlier this year that that they do not expect any major adverse effects on LHN’s advances portfolio as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak,” IJG said.LHN saw annual growth in advances of 18% or N$478.4 million in the past half-year, bringing the total loan book to N$3.14 billion. This is 7% higher than the comparative figure in 2019.“Management did not comment on the reasons for the large increases; however we assume that household cash flow constraints in 1H20 [first half of 2020] led to increased demand for debt,” Cirrus said.“The increased credit extension during the period would have also increased the credit risk, putting insurance income under further pressure. During the period, LHN’s credit impairment charge increased 15.2% to N$11.37 million, but still a minute 40 basis points of the book. The credit loss ratio is in line with the 1H19 ratio,” Cirrus added.Interest ratesLHN said the lower interest environment also impacted its results.“Interest income, despite the large growth in advances, decreased 1.8% and totalled N$310.6 million at 30 June 2020. Interest income from advances increased as is expected with fixed yields on these assets, however, the interest received on deposits held with banks decreased,” Cirrus said.Despite the relatively strong growth in advances, growth in interest income from advances was below their expectations, IJG said.“Management notes that the decline was driven by yield compression as the Bank of Namibia reduced interest rates several times since the beginning of the year. This remains strange to us as the interest rates that LHN charges customers are fixed and the lower rates should only affect new loans issued or renegotiated loans, in our opinion,” the analysts commented.Other figuresLHN reported a decrease in headline earnings per share (HEPS) from 47c to 30c for the six months under review. “The decrease of 36.2% highlights the difficult economic environment in Namibia and the heightened credit risk,” according to Cirrus.“Taking the preference share dividend into account sees earnings per share [EPS] dropping to 24.4c and profit after tax contracting by 38.4% year on year,” IJG said.According to Cirrus, LHN’s net asset value (NAV) increased from 525c per share to 565c per share compared to the same six months in 2019. “However, the poor performance in 1H20 coupled with the dividend payment for FY19 [2019 financial year] is captured in the fact that NAV only improved by 2c per share over the FY19 figure of 563c per share,” Cirrus said.LHN pays dividends annually, and as such no interim dividend has been declared, IJG said. “Management do however state in the results release that the current economic climate calls for ‘a more prudent approach in the preservation of capital’, hinting that the future dividend pay-out ratio may be lower than in the past,” IJG added.LHN ended 2019 at N$3.29 per share. On Wednesday it closed at N$2.67 per share, down about 18.8% since the beginning of the year.

Letshego Nam struggles in half-year

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-15

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Letshego Nam struggles in half-year

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-15

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