TIDMASAI
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 1.6 m, 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 Feb ruary 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 16-31 01-15 16-28 01-15 16-31
Jan Jan Feb Feb Mar 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 16-31 01-15 16-28 01-15 16-31
Jan Jan Feb Feb Mar 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
Gross OLP (in
Clients (in thousands) Delta USDm) Delta
Mar/20- Mar/20- Feb/21-
Mar/20- Feb/21- Mar/21 Mar/21 Mar/21
Countries Mar/20 Feb/21 Mar/21 Mar/21 Mar/21 Mar/20 Feb/21 Mar/21 USD CC(6) 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 M arch 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
As % of Total
Countries Jan/21 Feb/21 Mar/21 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)
March
Total moratoriums
since as % of As % of
Countries Jan/21 Feb/21 Mar/21 Mar/20 OLP 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
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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