Behran Bank: Shorter name, bigger performance

Berhan Bank, which changed its name, during a recent general assembly, announced that it concluded the past fiscal year with a massive accomplishment. It has boosted its paid up capital by more than 90 percent.
The bank is considered a new player in the industry and during the 2016/17 fiscal year it improved its performance in all areas. Abraham Alaro, President of Berhan, told Capital that the bank has performed well because customer service is a priority.
“We have also introduced new products and services besides the strong contribution of the board of directors, management and the whole staff which allowed us to register a marvelous achievement for the year,” he said.
According to the annual report, the bank’s profits have risen significantly.
The report stated that the bank’s net profit before tax was over 471 million birr, which is an increase of 35 percent.
For the stated period the bank also floated additional shares enabling it to increase its paid up capital to 1.4 billion birr. A year ago the paid up capital of Berhan Bank was 730 million birr. The current increase in paid up capital is 91.1 percent more than a year ago. According to Solomon Alemseged, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Berhan, in addition, the return on investment for the 2016/17 financial year is very big.
He said that the return on investment for shareholders is 32.8 percent. A single share that has a value of 1,000 birr earns 328 birr. Most of the time when companies expand their share or paid up capital the return on investment percentage goes down but in this case it went up.
The number of shareholders also expanded by 53.6 percent and reached 14,841.
During the last fiscal year the bank opened 56 new branches, which has increased the gain on deposit mobilization by 43.3 percent.
According to the report, the deposit mobilization reached 7.6 billion birr which expanded the role of the bank on loan and advance activity. The total loan and advance that the bank provided reached 5.4 billion birr which is a 42.1 percent increase.
Berhan now has 161 branches which is an over 53 percent increase.
At the general assembly held late last week the name of the bank was also shortened. During its formation the bank was called Berhan International Bank, but now it has been renamed as Berhan Bank. The name is expected to be ratified by the National Bank of Ethiopia, which is responsible for ratifying bank names.
Early this week the bank has also included an actor on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) as one of the business partners for traders there.
“Our export partners will be more advantageous since we will join ECX and our clients will get easier business transactions in their activity than at the trading floor, which is the major export commodity market,” he said.
The hard currency earnings of the bank will also increase since it will have more relationships with exporters, according to the president.
“We have formed a business strategy that will automate our activity and enable us to tackle challenges that we face in business,” Abraham told Capital.