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First international bank to issue
shares in foreign currency on MSE
by Ivan Brincat
Fimbank, an international bank specialising in trade finance
will be issuing 10,000,000 ordinary shares of a nominal value
of US$0.50 cents at an offer price of US$1.25.
The combined offering is being made up of 6,000,000 new ordinary
shares being issued by the company and another 4,000,000 ordinary
shares being offered by the company currently registered in
the name of Fimbank following a buy-back from Fortis. The offer
period is between 21 May and 1 June or earlier.
Dr John C. Grech, senior adviser to Fimbank and chairman of
International Advisory Board told The Malta Business Weekly
the Maltese public is being invited to participate in the success
story of a bank which is a locally licensed credit institution
but with a worldwide market and unlimited growth prospects.
The bank is not dependent on the local economy because it trades
internationally in a global market and only a small part of
its business is conducted locally. In fact it only has a small
portion of its business locally and this is expected to decrease
proportionately as the bank continues to expand its operations.
The purpose of the offering is for the net proceeds to be utilised
by the company to increase its own funds thereby sustaining
its continued growth and expansion.
This is the first locally listed company which will issue shares
in foreign currency on the Malta stock exchange.
The company was founded in 1994 and started operating in late
1995. The international owners of Fimbank had decided to locate
to Malta because of the serious regulatory system as well as
the existing stock of trained bankers and a tradition of banking.
Dr Grech said Malta also had an open economy and was sitting
in the right time zone. It was also geographically close to
North Africa and the Middle East which are among the bank’s
major
markets.
Fimbank has a highly qualified team of bankers and employs 50
people, 45 of them working in Malta; the majority are Maltese.
Dr Grech said Fimbank was very specialised and had significant
operations in ship breaking and trade financing. In ship breaking
finance, Fimbank has 20 per cent of the global market.
He emphasised that the potential for growth was immense as it
has a client base of small and medium size traders and banks
which are based on personal relationships. Moreover, Fimbank’s
philosophy is to tap niche markets worldwide.
The bank has always been profitable since it started operating.
After its start up years, in 2000, the bank registered a profit
of US$2,168,355, a 38 per cent increase over the same 12 months
the previous year.
Dr Grech said the bank plans to increase its profit to US$7,200,000
after tax by 2005. He said that Fimbank was one of the success
stories of the Malta Financial Services Centre. “It is
an ideal example of what the MFSC should be. The bank started
from scratch in Malta and has registered a net profit throughout
while operating in a world competitive market from Malta. The
difference with Fimbank is that we focus on world markets and
not the domestic one,” Dr Grech said.
“That means that the investment in Fimbank is an international
one not only because it is in US dollars but because the operation
is effectively a global one.”
The bank’s general manager Ray Busuttil said the company
is active in 15 countries but wants to increase its presence
in 30 countries. It has handled business in 50 countries and
the target is to increase this to 100 over the next few years.
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