(Ecofin Agency) - For the first nine months of 2018, Société Ivoirienne de Banque (SIB), subsidiary of the Moroccan banking group Attijariwafa Bank declared XOF16.3 billion of net profit, a strong performance supported by a 13.5% increase of its net banking product.  

Though this net profit is a record for the bank, it represents a slight 1.1% progression far from the 10.2% average annual growth rate presented in the briefing note published during its IPO on the Abidjan stock exchange in 2017.

SIB explained that its net profit has been affected by SAF CACAO group’s debt which eats up about 70% of its allowances for doubtful receivables and, because of this, its risk cost rose by more than 160% to reach XOF3.6 billion.

In addition to that, the financial institution suffered from an adjustment of the tax burden. Indeed, to determine its net profit for the period under review, it deduced the maximum tax rate of 25% while for the 2017 fiscal year, it was 21.2%. That year, it was contemplating some tax optimization possibilities.

The last quarter of 2018 will not be more prolific. "The last quarter, generally affected by the funding of cocoa activities is timidly starting but, the bank’s credit portfolio for the other sectors is still important and its outstanding credit should rise further during the period", the bank informed in its financial disclosure.

On the financial market of the WAEMU region where the bank is listed, SIB’s shares started the week with a 1% rise but the volume of shares exchanged was low (10) at mid-day of Monday 12 November 2018. Taking June 15, the inception date of the split as a baseline, the bank’s shares has lost a bit more than 25% of its value.
Idriss Linge