TPB profits fall after merger

Dar es Salaam. The May 2018 merger between TPB Bank Plc and Twiga Bancorp Limited has adversely affected the former, eating into its profit and sending the levels of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) up, figures show.

The Twiga Bancorp Limited was put under Statutory Management of the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) on October 28, 2016 following its under capitalisation status, but on May 17, 2018, the central bank merged it with TPB. The merged entities maintained the name of TPB Plc.

And now, the TPB Plc’s financial statement for the first half of the current calendar year shows that the bank’s net profit dwindled by 48.6 per cent to Sh5.3 billion during the first half of 2018 compared to Sh10.9 billion that was registered during a similar period last year.

The level of NPLs rose to 8.35 per cent of its total gross loans in June 2018 from 5.05 per cent in March this year.

“The losses were largely because of acquiring Twiga Bancorp Bank at a time when its performance was not impressive,” the TPB chief executive officer, Mr Sabasaba Moshingi, told The Citizen via telephone.

To go back to the profit path, he said, its bank, which has a total of 80 branches countrywide, would be more creative to attract more customers for the bank to beat competitiveness in the banking market.

He added that they were keen on issuing loans, but they would be more aggressive following up on defaulters in order to either lower or end the NPLs rate.

He is optimistic that the negative performance will soon be a thing of the past, banking his hopes on the current bank’s solid diversified customer base.

“Twiga Bancorp does not pose a big threat to us on our performance in the long run,” said Mr Moshingi. “We have all it takes to bounce back and record profit from the third quarter.”