Letshego bullish on H1 results

“This led to the use of accumulated tax reserves that were approved by shareholders in the prior interim financial period, and resulted in a higher profit after tax base in that period”, a cautionary statement from the company reads.

The company says that the interim results will incorporate the results of Micro Africa Limited (MAL) from 1 June 2012 being the date of the finalisation of this transaction but will not have any significant impact on the profit before or after tax results for the interim period.

MAL is an established company that has been operating in Kenya since 2000 with subsidiaries in Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda and an associated company in Tanzania. Its operations entail the provision of secured and unsecured personal, SMME and Group loans.

Last year the company introduced products involving the perfecting of security, over the counter cash handling for loan transactions and mobile banking technology. The company has a current loan book in excess of P52.1 million, 21 branches and a customer base of over 17,000.

At the same time Letshego’s loan book shot past the P3 billion mark earlier this year following its increase in its African footprint. The company has also diversified its revenue streams away from its traditional cash cow market in Botswana.

Meanwhile BusinessPost understands that the operations of the Central Registries continue as normal and collections remain at historical levels through the deduction at source basis.

The Government’s central registry announced in September last year that it will no longer be the intermediary for collection and payment of credit between civil servants and corporates such as micro financers, which included among them, Letshego. However, the government was later to suspend the move citing reasons of ‘consultation’.

Industry sources say the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) listed entity’s which now offers macro loans of up to P200,000 over a five-year period collects at least P66 million per month in loan repayments from government employees who constitute 95 percent of its customers.

Letshego has operations in 11 African countries in Southern and Eastern Africa including in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia and has indicated plans to expand into other regions.