Tag: Citizens Bank

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On the Line – The Banks Group

Comment
Co-incidences are rarely easy to explain. At the time of launching an award for the best Annual Report by any Guyanese company as one of the activities and initiatives for its 25th anniversary observed last year, this column carried a review of the financial statements of the two operating companies of the Banks DIH group: Banks DIH Limited (‘Banks’), the food and beverage giant, Citizens Bank Limited (‘Citizens’), a 51% owned retail bank and Caribanks Shipping Company Ltd, a dormant company.

This coming Tuesday – and regrettably belatedly – Ram & McRae will be announcing the winner of the award for the 2010 annual reports. That is as much as I am permitted to say at this time.

Introduction
Today’s Business Page looks at the financial statements of the two operating companies of the Banks DIH group. The group comprises Banks DIH Limited, the food and beverage giant, Citizens Bank Limited, a 51% owned retail bank, and Caribanks Shipping Company Ltd, a dormant company. Banks and Citizens are both public companies whose shares are traded on the Guyana Stock Exchange. The financial statements of the group also include as an associate company B&B Farms Inc, a Guyana private company, and BCL (Barbados) Limited in which Banks holds a 25% interest.

Both the public companies in the group have as their accounting year-ends September 30 and will be holding their annual general meetings later this week – Citizens on Tuesday 17 and Banks four days later.

The shareholdings in the two companies have changed little over the past year with Banks spreading just over 60% of its shareholdings among a vast network of private individuals while in the case of Citizens, four shareholders own 82% of the shares with the remainder spread among about seventy smaller shareholders. The Boards of Directors of both companies are chaired by Mr Clifford Reis, CCH, who is also the Managing Director of Banks.

In a Corporate Governance Code published last year, the Private Sector Commission boldly called for a clear division of responsibilities at the head of the company. The Code makes it mandatory that the positions of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) be held by separate persons. It also requires that the division of responsibilities between the Chairman and CEO be clearly established, be set out in writing, and be agreed by the Board.

Some observations
Another contrast between the parent and the banking subsidiary is evident in their annual reports; Banks’ high-quality, glossy report is designed and produced by Ross Advertising and printed by Scrip-J of Trinidad and Tobago while Citizens’ is on flatter type paper and produced by KRITI whose address is not stated.

There has been no change in the gender composition of both boards, each remaining steadfastly all-male, despite the constant chorus from progressive women like Stella Ramsaroop and Andaiye for more recognition to be given to women in Guyana. What makes the situation even more remarkable is that both entities have a large number of women staff and in the case of Citizens, six of the seven principal officers are women!

In any case, there can be no doubt that at both entities women make valuable contributions to the “exemplary growth in revenue and profit over that of previous years” reported by Chairman Reis in his report on the group. He had every reason to exude satisfaction: group profits from operations increased by 32% on a turnover increase of 16%. On the other hand, benefiting from the five per cent reduction in tax rates announced in the 2011 Budget, taxation increased by 10%, mainly from the banking subsidiary.

Banks DIH Limited

Source: Annual Report 2011

The company’s turnover (sales) increased by 15% from $16.3 billion to $18.8 billion, and its profit from operations increased by 27% while taxation at $868 million was a mere $4 million increase over 2010. As a result, net profit after taxation increased by 42%. Profit from operations as a percentage of sales which was 13% has increased to 14.3% while taxation as a percentage of net profit before tax decreased from 38.8% in 2010 to 30.9% in 2011.

Chairman Reis attributed the improved results to revenue garnered from the increase in physical sales, efficiencies derived from plant and machinery upgrades and an improved presell and distribution system. The performance was also attributed to capital expenditure of $3,142 million on major plant and machinery for the beverage, alcohol and water plants. The modern soft drinks plant which is expected to be put into use early in 2012 is expected to continue the trend of increasing productivity and profitability.

Growth
To get a clearer picture of how the profitability has changed one only has to go back to 2007 and 2008 when the profit before operations was 9.7% and 9.9% respectively, while the net tax effective rates in 2007 and in 2008 were 38.9% and 40.1%. Most impressively, two years after the company passed the $1 billion profit-after-tax mark, it is aiming to double that figure. Without taking anything away from the Guyana directors, it is perhaps more than merely coincidental that the company’s growth trajectory has been accelerated following the accidental partnership with Banks Barbados, aimed to repel an attempted take-over by Ansa McAl of Trinidad.

What is also significant is that the entire increase in the revenues of the company came not from exports but from domestic sources. Note 20 to the financial statements which gives a broad geographical breakdown of revenue, shows sales of goods and other services increasing by $2,478 million or 15% while revenue from exports actually declined by 24% to $233 million, down from $305 million.

Whether the company is satisfied with its domestic sales is not clear, but with the reputation of Guyana rum internationally, the company may wish to expand its horizons, a feature of the group since its launch in 1957, and indeed the theme for the 2011 report – the next level.

Source: Annual Report 2011

The balance sheet for the company and the group shows net assets increasing by $1,438 million and $2,149 million respectively. Payables and accruals included under current liabilities in the table above have increased from $1,538 million in 2010 to $2,625 million at September 30 last year.

Citizens Bank Limited
After a poor year in 2009 when the Bank had to make an impairment provision of $170 million for investments in Stanford International Bank and Clico Trinidad Limited – the region’s two financial catastrophes for that year – the results for 2010 were encouraging, while for 2011 they are impressive.

Profit after taxation in 2011 increased by 50.5% from $534 million to $804 million. Net Income for the year ended September 30, 2011 was $1,949 million compared to $1,469 million, an increase of 26.7%, double the increase in 2010 over 2009. Profit before Taxation was $1,279 million compared with $887 million in 2010, an increase of 44%.

Interest income increased by 32% and other income by 7.8% while operating expenses increased by 8.8%. Net Customers’ deposits had a significant 30.3% increase while interest expense increased by a more modest 8.5%.

Conclusion
The Banks Chairman was careful not to encourage too high expectations about the future. He avoided any comments about the future in the Banks DIH report while all the CEO of Citizens Bank was prepared to say – unhelpfully – was that 2012 “[would] bring both challenges and opportunities.”

It is my strong view, and indeed that of the Private Sector Commission, that companies need to enhance their communication with their members and the public. I noted a few weeks ago that Demerara Bank Limited had refused to release its 2011 annual report “until after their AGM.” I was met with a similar response when I sought a copy of the Citizens’ Bank Annual report. That is not a practice that should be encouraged by any institution, and certainly not one that has its sights firmly fixed on the next level.

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On the line – The Banks Group

Comment

Ram & McRae has identified and announced as one of the activities and initiatives for its 25th anniversary being observed this year, an award for the best Annual Report by any Guyanese company. The selection will be made by a panel of independent professionals from the business community, academia, the Guyana Bar Association, consumer representatives and the media.

In deference to the firm and in order to avoid any appearance of, or in any other way influencing that panel, Business Page and this feature will restrict its analysis of the annual financial statements and reports of public companies in Guyana to matters contained and disclosed in those reports and accounts. It will avoid identifying, as far as is consistent with a proper analysis of those reports, any defects or deficiencies, and will be less judgmental in its evaluation and interpretation of those documents. A consequence of this approach will be that the column will not be offering any public recommendations for addressing any perceived or actual deficiencies.

I hope that this does not detract from the interest which readers have shown in this feature over the years, which has on many occasions caused the column to be at odds with some of the companies.

Introduction
Today’s Business Page looks at the financial statements of the two operating companies of the Banks DIH group. The group comprises Banks DIH Limited (‘Banks’), the food and beverage giant, Citizens Bank Limited, a 51% owned retail bank and Caribanks Shipping Company Ltd, a dormant company. The financial statements of the group also include as an associate company B&B Farms Inc, a Guyana private company and BCL (Barbados) Limited in which Banks holds a 25% interest. The financial statements of the group do not treat as an associate Banks Holdings Limited, a company in which it owns 8.6% of its issued capital, has a director on its board and with which it had transactions valued at $150 million during 2009. On the other hand, Banks Holdings which owns 20% of Banks and which has two directors on the board of the Guyana company, treats Banks Guyana as an associate in its books.

Both the public companies in the group have as their accounting year-ends September 30 and will be holding their annual general meetings later this month – Citizens on January 19 and Banks four days later. The shareholdings in the two companies reflect an interesting contrast with Banks spreading 60% of its shareholdings among a vast network of private individuals, while in the case of Citizens, four shareholders own 82% of the shares with the remainder spread among about sixty smaller shareholders.

Banks will be presenting a regionally designed and produced high-quality, glossy report in which the Chairman and CEO waxes lyrical about the iconic role of the company in the landscape of Guyana. The report of the bank in contrast, is done with the standard cover in which only the year is different. One other issue of difference is the structure and contents of the reports of the two companies which have different governance structures, with Banks having an Executive Chairman, the American model, while Citizens has split the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, the European model.

Banks has eleven directors, five of whom overlap with the nine in Citizens. In both cases, all are male, even as this week’s Economist shows on its cover a blue-collar woman flexing her muscles and boasting “We did it!”


Source: Annual Report 2009

As the Chairman pointed out in his report, the net profit of the company passed the significant one billion dollar milestone for the first time in its history, with a 32% increase over 2008. Those profits were earned on increased turnover of 5% which would be slightly ahead of the official inflation rate for the country. Net operating costs rose by a smaller 2.1% compared with an increase of 4.9% in 2008 over 2007, but with staff costs increasing by just under 10%, about double the rate of inflation. Costs for key management increased by 13.07% while for other staff the increases averaged 10.69%.

A significant contributor to the better performance reported in this year, however, is a write-back of $474 million arising from a favourable settlement of an excise tax issue between the company and the Guyana Revenue Authority. In 2007 and 2008, the company made provisions of $183M and $291M for potential excise taxes and the published half-year report at March 31, 2009 showed a cumulative provision of $617M.

Reflective of that agreement, the Profit and Loss Account for the year shows a reduction in excise tax of $268 million over 2008 or an effective rate of 11.7% of sales compared with 15%. If the write-back, which is a non-recurring benefit, is excluded from the current year’s profit the net after-tax profit for the year would have been $813M. When compared to a profit for 2008 of $1,039M (adjusted for the excise tax provision made in that year), the company would have reflected a fall in profitability of 21.72%, despite the increase in sales.

Partly due to the write-back, all the profitability ratios show increases over the preceding year, but so too do the other ratios which are less, or not directly affected by the write-back, such as activity, liquidity and solvency ratios. Both current as well as long-term liabilities have declined while current assets have increased as have cash resources which increased by $481 million or 37% over 2008.

The average rate of tax charged in the accounts for the current year is 39%, a marginal decline over the previous year. Current year taxation has jumped from 34% in 2008 to 43% in 2009, with property, withholding and capital gains tax accounting for a smaller percentage this year (11%) than in 2008 (16%). High rates of taxes and the non-deductibility of Property Tax have been a major concern of this group and the manufacturing sector for decades, but such concerns have largely been ignored by the government and such groups as the National Competitiveness Strategy Council, in which the private sector has significant representation without any apparent comparable influence.

As a result of the attempt by a regional group to wrest control of the company and the company’s defence strategy, the company’s share price based on transactions reported by the Guyana Stock Exchange, has shown a high degree of volatility. During the year, the company’s share price fell from $10 to $9.50, or by 5%, and is now at its lowest point since September 2008.

Share price

Source: Guyana Stock Exchange

Citizens Bank Limited
It has not been a good year for the banking arm of the group. While Republic Bank and Demerara Bank with similar year-ends have been reporting record profits, and with the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry likely to follow suit, Citizens has seen its profit decline during the year from $438 million to $391 million, or by 11%. Contributing to this decline is an impairment provision of $170 million for investments in Stanford International Bank and Clico Trinidad Limited, the region’s two financial catastrophes for 2009.

Because of the difference in the governance arrangements referred to above, Citizens presents both a Chairman’s and a CEO’s report, the latter offering details and insights on some operational issues of relevance not only to members, but to depositors and the wider public who see strength in a financial institution being reflected in numbers and profitability.

Interest income increased by 5% and other income by 31% while operating expenses increased by 11%. Net customers’ deposits had a small decrease during the year with increases in savings deposits of 24% and demand deposits of 11% while the usually high-value term deposits declined sharply by 32%.


Source: Annual Report 2009

Share price
In 337 sessions since the Guyana Stock Exchange began trading in 2003, shares in Citizens have only traded on 9 occasions, 4 of which were in the last year. Given so few trades the price at which shares would change hands in usually limited volumes is not an indicator of what other transactions may fetch. The records of the Stock Exchange show a trade in the shares in Citizens in December 2009 at a price of $45 up from $18 in June 2009.

Next week we will look at the increasing abuse of the Contingency Fund as part of the deteriorating financial management of the public purse.

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On the line: Banks DIH Annual Report

Introduction
Banks DIH, the giant food and beverage company will be holding its 53rd annual general meeting on Saturday, January 17, 2009, close to four months following the end of its financial year of September 30, 2008. As a public company Banks is a reporting issuer for purposes of the Securities Industry Act, 1998 although like other domestic public companies in Guyana it is listed not on the Stock Exchange’s official list but on its Secondary List which consists of those securities that have not sought admission to the official list. Such securities are eligible for trading merely by virtue of being registered with the Guyana Securities Council.

Inclusion on the Official List on the other hand, according to the Stock Exchange website, indicates that that the, “stocks and shares that are listed are freely transferable and validly issued – not non-transferable, or forged, or otherwise tainted; it also means that the issuer meets the requirements of law and regulation in the management of its business and in the disclosure of adequate, timely and accurate information about its business to investors.” This distinction seems harsh, although companies’ silence on the reasons for their unwillingness to seek admission on the official list clearly does not help their cause.

The Barbados connection
The annual report to be put to shareholders at the meeting includes the financial statements of the company as well as the group. The group is made up of the company as the holding company, Citizens Bank Guyana Inc, a 51% subsidiary, and a dormant subsidiary Caribanks Shipping Company Limited, which appears to have little or no assets or income. The company also has two associated companies, ie companies in which it has significant influence but not control. The two such companies are BCL (Barbados) Limited and B&B Farms Inc.

BCL is owned equally by Banks Barbados, Valley Manufacturing Company Limited of Belize, Banks (DIH) Limited in Guyana and Blue Waters in Trinidad, all of whose export development needs BCL seeks to promote. Readers will recall that the Guyana-Barbados link-up was a defensive move by the local company reacting to a perceived hostile take-over about four years ago by the Trinidad conglomerate Ansa McAl. Under the deal the Barbados company was given 20% of the shares in the local company in exchange for 8.59% of the shares in the Barbados company, based on the respective book values of the shares at the time of the share exchange. Two of the directors of Banks Barbados sit on the board of Banks DIH while Mr Azam Khan represents the Guyana interest on the Barbados board.

Note 29 to the financial statements indicates that DIH purchased finished goods valued at $53 million from the Banks Holdings but made no sales to it. On the other hand sales to BCL amounted to $45 million and purchases amounted to $30 million.

Improvements
The group accounts include mainly a manufacturing entity, a financial services institution and less significantly, laundry and hotel services, a combination which does not make the group accounts easily understandable to the ordinary shareholder. While the company is separately accounted for, any member wishing to ascertain exactly how the very significant banking arm has performed would need to refer to the bank’s annual report which unfortunately is not posted on its website.

One criticism that this column has made of the company’s financial statements – that it does not include the very important statement of cash flows for the company – has been addressed and this is now contained on page 26 of the annual report. This is commendable. Also commendable is the greater level of disclosure about corporate governance although one has to wonder why an enlightened company like Banks DIH cannot have at least one female director in a board of twelve. Where is the gender-consciousness in a company of which perhaps a majority of the employees in the food division are female, as are many of its customers and shareholders?

Inadequate information
The unusually brief Chairman’s report on pages 8 and 9 of the annual report (including picture and graphs) gives very little information on the company’s operations and even in that limited space, Chairman Clifford Reis concentrates mainly on the group results with one paragraph reporting on the profits earned by the banking subsidiary and the longest paragraph dealing with the arrangement with Barbados. The annual report of the Barbados company presents a stark contrast with respect to the discussion which the management shares with its members. Significantly, in the Barbados company, the roles of Chairman and CEO are separate with both persons presenting separate reports to the members. There, the Chairman’s report runs to just two pages while that of the CEO covers more than ten. Structures and culture are different, but the amount and quality of information offered to Banks DIH shareholders is far too sparse to enable any understanding of the performance of the various divisions.

The company v the group

Source: Annual Report 2008

The table shows in the left half the performance of the company for the year ended September 30, 2008 with comparison for 2007. On the right hand side of the table are the group results ended on the same date, with H1 representing the first half of the year and H2 the second half. The first half numbers come from the unaudited half year report published under the Securities Industry Act while the second half numbers are derived from the audited financial statements.

The company’s sales for the year increased by 5.1% over 2007 to reach $13.565 billion. Profit from operations, ie before finance cost and other income including dividends received from Citizens Bank, increased by 6.4%, considerably less than the 27.12% for the group. As a percentage of sales, profit from operations increased marginally from 9.74% to 9.9% but it is not possible to determine how much of this is attributable to the company’s branded products, those it produces under licence and bought in products. After charging taxation of $570 million including a mix of property, withholding and capital gains taxes of $79 million, the company realised a net profit of $850 million (2007 – $793 million) of which dividends paid or to be paid amount to $420 million.

Profit from operations for the group increased by 27% over the preceding year to $1.922 billion with other income net of financing cost resulting in profit before tax of $1.968 billion. After taxation of $710.9 million of which property, withholding and capital gains taxes amount to $107 million, the profit for the group was $1,257 million, an increase of 22% over 2007. H1 accounted for 49% of sales but 55% of profit after tax, while in the second half of the year 51% of the sales produced only 45% of profit after tax. No explanation is given for this apparently anomalous situation but the unaudited first half would have included estimates while the second half of the year coincided with increased costs of raw material and fuel which the company may not have been able to pass on in higher prices.

Profits after tax of Citizens Bank amounted to $437.7 million, an increase of 66% over 2007. Of the amount of $437.7 million only 51% belongs to the group, the rest attributable to the shareholders who own the remaining 49% of the shares in Citizens.

The very important measure of Earnings Per Share for the group jumped by 16% from $0.90 to $1.04 but for the company the increase, which is not stated in the annual report, is a more modest 7.6% after accounting for dividends from its banking subsidiary. Perhaps this explains why the price of the company’s share was almost static throughout the year. Once again we note that there is no information or discussion on this vital factor.

Dividends
The company continues to honour a commitment it made to shareholders to pay three dividends, which of course carries an administrative cost but also allows for better cash flow management. Total dividends paid and proposed for the year are $0.45 per share compared with $0.42 per share in 2007 – an increase of 7.14%. The payout ratio which measures the share of after-tax profit paid to the shareholders was 49.41% compared with 50.44% in 2007.

The company’s balance sheet remains strong with cash resources of $1.3 billion, an increase of $1.2 billion in 2007 while net trade receivables, a function of sales and credit management increased by 24% on sales which increased by 5%. Total assets of the company grew by 5.53% while those of the group increased by 6.63%.

Outlook
Mr Reis is one of the private sector voices that can still command attention, and he was known to advocate fearlessly on behalf of his company and the private sector. At this time, his reasoned and constructive views on issues on direct and indirect taxation including VAT would have been particularly useful above the din of often uninformed rhetoric and opinion that seems dominant. The company should be leading in the advocacy for the zero-rating of bottled water (at least locally produced) – one of life’s greatest necessities and what some may even consider a public good. Water from GWI which few would want to drink without boiling is zero-rated, but that of the private producers is taxed at 16%. That policy certainly needs revisiting and offers an opportunity to the company to join with consumers to have the tax removed. This I should add is only one of several areas that need reform sooner rather than later.

Like the other commercial banks, Citizens has had a very good year and its results have embellished the group’s performance. But even banking can be cyclical and the core business of the company – particularly its beverage arm – needs to become more dynamic and be positioned to take up any downturn.

Chairman Reis in his report titled ‘Building on Traditions of Strength’ did not address the future prospects of the company. He referred briefly to the impact of the global financial crisis on remittances and the economy and expressed a commitment to be “optimistic, proactive, and to pursue a vigorous approach towards maintaining and improving the performance of the business.”

The group may need more than just commitment as the world enters the most challenging year of the company’s illustrious history.