It has been a particularly eventful and exciting year for us. We recorded a strong performance and pursued far-reaching initiatives to strengthen our foundations for sound and sustained business growth. While upholding our values and capitalising on our robust operating model, we undertook key investments to build an organisation which is worthy of the trust of our stakeholders.

During FY 2018/19, we delivered an excellent set of financial results. While our balance sheet sustained a notable expansion, attributable profit to shareholders increased by some 31% to attain Rs 9,482 million. Our performance reflects the continued success of our endeavours to broaden and diversify our revenue base at the level of both banking and non-banking entities. Indeed, earnings from foreign sources and non-banking operations contributed around 69% of Group results. We can also take pride from the fact that the Group has further improved its financial soundness ratios in support of its growth strategies. As a major achievement, our consolidated BIS and Tier 1 ratios have edged up to attain 17.4% and 15.8% respectively. Our cost to income ratio declined further, from 40.1% in the preceding financial year to 37.1% in FY 2018/19, while asset quality further improved in spite of the challenging context across some markets. We also maintained healthy funding and liquidity positions. Against this backdrop, the investment-grade rating of MCB Ltd was upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service. This is, without any doubt, a proud accomplishment for us all. The upgrade should help us widen and deepen our regional expansion endeavours, while we continue to play a significant role in promoting the development of Mauritius.

On the business development front, while remaining alert to ongoing shifts across the operating landscape, the Group has actively and thoughtfully anchored its expansion drive on the basis of its threepronged strategic orientations, which are to strengthen our domestic position, expand our non-bank activities and grow our international footprint. Group entities made noteworthy headway in accelerating business growth across key pillars, while further diversifying their market reach, notably on the African continent and beyond. As regard the banking cluster, MCB Ltd maintained its leadership position in the Mauritian banking sector. It executed its growth strategies across segments, helped notably by key innovations on the payments front. It pursued its regional diversification agenda, with commendable success achieved with respect to Energy and Commodities financing as well as international structured finance. As for our foreign banking subsidiaries, they have steadfastly pursued their initiatives to increase market positions in the retail and corporate fields. In the non-banking field, beyond improving our footprint across established areas, notably capital markets, we have reinforced our positioning as a regional hub for meeting the outsourcing needs of financial service providers, especially those in Africa, via our ‘Bank of Banks’ strategy. In addition to that, we gradually extended our footprint in new and emerging segments. Notably, we have reinforced our relationships with and stepped up our financial assistance to micro businesses and entrepreneurs. While capitalising on the expertise of key local and international stakeholders, our recently-established MCB Institute of Finance Ltd aims to provide students and professionals with the financial know-how via the delivery of dedicated courses. I believe that, going forward, this new entity should help to consolidate the Group’s position as an integrated financial services provider and contribute to the development of the national ‘Knowledge Hub’ initiative.

Our accomplishments indicate that our strategy is working in an environment which requires us to be permanently smart, innovative and disciplined in our approach and functioning. To achieve their objectives, the entities of the Group have continuously refined their value proposition with a view to stepping up service quality and addressing the increasingly demanding needs of their clients. In parallel, the Group sustained its efforts to enhance the competencies of its talent pool. We capitalised on a strong risk management and compliance framework to support our prudent and informed business expansion, while we fostered adherence to evolving local and international regulations, laws, codes and standards. In fact, our activities have been guided by our sound governance standards and practices, which are inherent in our values and processes. On another note, we strengthened synergies and collaboration amongst our different entities, which notably helped to step up our efforts and initiatives towards promoting our brand and sustaining our market visibility internationally.

Moreover, we have launched various business transformation and realignment projects to shore up inherent capabilities and nurture healthy foundations for future growth. Amongst the main projects underway, we have actively mobilised our resources to implement our Digital Transformation Programme, with MCB Ltd already benefitting in terms of the simplication of customer journeys and operational efficiency gains. At the same time, we have, amongst key realisations posted so far, made headway towards implementing an agile way of working within the organisation.

The last financial year was also marked by the dynamic engagement of our Group to purposefully rethink its status and identity within the economy and society in order to be relatively more impactful in its role as a responsible organisation. We implemented our ambitious Corporate Sustainability Programme, which is founded on our endeavour to revisit the notion of success beyond the financial performance mantra. In line with our ‘Success Beyond Numbers’ philosophy, key pillars that we have pursued are as follows: (i) the development of a vibrant and sustainable local economy; (ii) the protection and valorisation of our cultural and environmental heritage; and (iii) the promotion of individual and collective well-being. We have, at the same time, catered for a fitting operational and governance framework to underpin the conceptualisation and execution of initiatives.

We continue to believe that the best investment that we can make is to develop our people and improve their level of engagement on an ongoing basis. We ensure that our employees acquire the necessary skills and competencies by means of proactive and bespoke learning opportunities, while furthering their professional advancement and resilience. We also aim to promote the well-being, empowerment and motivation of our people to help them pursue their ambitions and to bring the best out of them. Towards building strong and sustainable workforce capabilities, our organisation has, with the help of a renowned international consultant, moved forward to implement an HR Transformation Programme. The programme aims to embed world-class practices and processes towards (i) putting in place a robust talent management framework; (ii) promoting leadership development and cementing our attractive employer brand; (iii) entrenching a performance management framework which is conducive to result optimisation and talent development; (iv) fostering strategic talent acquisition to cater for current and future needs; and (v) boosting operational efficiency levels. While progress has, so far, been realised in terms of the development of key frameworks and an adapted operating model, we are also gearing up for the upcoming establishment of an MCB Leadership Academy, which will be a cornerstone of our HR Transformation Programme. The ultimate goal of the Academy is to bring our Group closer to becoming a learning organisation, whose objective is to create, acquire and transfer knowledge to build tangible and intangible value to stakeholders. It aims to enrich our work culture and champion change for the better of the organisation. The Academy will be pivotal in designing and delivering bespoke ‘on-the-job’ management training and soft skills modules, with a view to ensuring the ongoing development of current and future Group leaders.

The solid credentials of the Group have been rewarded and acknowledged in several ways. MCB Group Ltd has remained the strongest blue-chip company on the Official Market of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius during the year under review. We have consolidated our leadership position, with Rs 69 billion of market capitalisation posted as at 30 June 2019, accounting a market share of some 27%. While outstripping the market index, our share price has, in general, witnessed a notable increase during the last financial year and until recently. It achieved an all-time intra-day price high of Rs 300 in August 2019. Further reflecting our performance and as an improvement compared with last year’s standing, MCB Group Ltd is now ranked 613th worldwide as per the latest Top 1000 World Banks listing of The Banker magazine, while retaining its status as the leading institution in East Africa. In another respect, the Group has been recipient of several awards. MCB Ltd won the ‘Regional Bank of the Year - Southern Africa’ award at the African Banker Awards 2019. Besides, the Bank was, for the sixth consecutive year, acclaimed ‘Best Bank in Mauritius’ at the Euromoney Awards. With regard to its corporate reporting, MCB Group Ltd has been the winner in the ‘Governance’ category at the PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Reporting Awards this year, which testified to our commitment for promoting transparency vis-à-vis our multiple stakeholders. In the same vein, I am proud to note that we made further headway with this year’s Annual Report as gauged by our more comprehensive adherence to the integrated reporting principles. We have, indeed, posted an even more coherent display and appraisal of our ability to pursue our business growth and create stakeholder value. We achieved another major leap forward with the publication, for the first time, of a separate Sustainability Report. The latter provides an indepth and illustrative overview of our efforts to contribute to the welfare and prosperity of societies and communities, alongside shedding light on our socio-economic impact in Mauritius.

Whereas we have made major strides in transforming our organisation, we are conscious that we cannot rest on our laurels in view of the increasingly dynamic and demanding context prevailing locally and abroad. Consistent with our risk appetite and while being guided by our robust governance framework, we will do what it takes to consolidate our position within existing markets and pursue our strategic intents across emerging segments exhibiting good business potential. The African continent will remain key to our business diversification endeavours, while we continue to adopt an opportunistic mindset in view of potentially interesting avenues beyond. On the operational front, we will embrace a clear vision and dedicated initiatives to instill a high-performance culture by continuously refining and optimising the way we function. We will also attend to the needs of our client base in an increasingly proactive and adapted manner. In addition to ensuring that business transformation and realignment programmes unfold in an efficient and timely manner, our attention will be devoted to the continued simplification and upgrade of our operating systems and processes with a view to further improving the productivity of our operations and sharpening our competitive edge.

As we move forward, we will actively pursue our digital transformation, from front to back end, which, we concur, is a sine qua non condition for us to remain relevant in the current business environment. The advent of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain technologies and other technological disruptions warrant that we remain on our toes, whilst deploying efforts towards accelerating the emergence of an ecosystem aimed at providing innovative and convenient propositions to our customers. Against this backdrop and while guarding any potential cyber risks, the Group is intent on incurring the necessary technology investments and re-engineering its business operations with a view to creating omnichannel and scalable digital experiences. In addition to tapping into impactful partnerships and ecosystems across industries, the onus will be on us to nurture a corporate culture and a mode of operation which are open to new ideas and are customer-driven, while being anchored on experimentation and an agile way of working. This is all the more essential given the rise of the millennials and Gen Z who, either as employees or customers, look for simplified and technology-centric opportunities, interactions and solutions that are best adapted to their mind-sets and behaviours. We are determined to rise up to this challenge!

In line with our purpose and values, we remain intent on bolstering our capabilities in order to implement more extensively our Corporate Sustainability Programme. Conscious of our prominent market positioning and our significance in furthering nationwide socio-economic development, we are aware of our roles and responsibilities to foster a better tomorrow for future generations. While collaborating with local partners and involving our employees, we will seek to uphold the trust that our stakeholders have in our ability to create long-term value for them, alongside building more inclusive and resilient communities, upholding the wellbeing and advancement of people, fostering a low-carbon economy and preserving a healthy natural environment. Let me add that we will remain transparent and outward-looking in our interactions and communications with our stakeholders. This involves enlightening them on the pragmatism and the basis of specific business decisions, while pointing out that embedding sustainability principles in our activities remains an ongoing journey in respect of which we do have additional grounds to cover.

On behalf of the Board, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to our esteemed customers for their continued trust in our ability to meet their goals and aspirations as well as to our valued shareholders who have remained fully invested in our growth. I wish also to express my unreserved gratitude to the Management team and to our employees across different entities and layers of the organisation for their passion, professionalism and hard work in driving the Group forward and making us succeed. I know that our organisation is being well managed and run, which provides us with reassurance when planning and strategising for the periods ahead. I would like to put on record my appreciation to my fellow Directors for their dedicated support and wise counsel in helping the Group to adapt to the constantly changing operating landscape, move in the right direction and achieve its strategic ambitions.

During the last financial year, we were saddened by the demise of our former Chairman, Gerard Hardy, who had joined the institution in 2002 as Vice-President of the Board of MCB Ltd, i.e. the Group’s former holding entity, before being appointed to the Board of MCB Group Ltd as Chairman in March 2014 after the Group restructuring exercise. Gerard will be remembered for his leadership, high professional standards and for his significant contribution towards modernising the Group and steering it forward. On another note, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Navin Hooloomann and Jean-Pierre Montocchio for the strong acumen that they have brought to the Group, before leaving the Board in November 2018. In the same vein, allow me to express my warm welcome to San Singaravelloo and Michael Lising, who have both been appointed as members of the Board since then.

Looking ahead there is no doubt that the future holds much promise for our Group. While we are transforming the way we do business and interact with our stakeholders, we are fully conscious that we will be confronted to daunting challenges ahead. Alongside preserving the image, reputation and franchise of the Group, we intend to relentlessly pursue our growth strategy in an innovative, pragmatic and responsible manner, supported by our teamwork-driven culture and our quest for excellence.