Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1481619
3 NEWS 13.10.2022 According to the Retail Price Index, Malta has witnessed rapid price growth over the first six months of 2022, with prices rising by an average of 5.1 per cent from January to June. The two main components driving the RPI growth rate in the first half of the year are food and housing. Food is contributing 1.9 percentage points while the housing contribution is at 0.9 percentage points. The next highest contributors are transport and communication at 0.6 percentage points, recreation and culture at 0.4 percentage points, and household equipment and household maintenance costs at 0.3 percentage points. retail price index FROM PAGE 1 Shareholders will also be asked to approve a proposed share split, announced on 20 September, which is intended to allow easier access to a larger number of investors which should result in improved trading liquidity in the bank's shares. But it is the announced share issue – not the share split – that has current and pro- spective investors worried. Lombard Bank has not yet indicated how large a share issue it is planning. Business Today reached out to the bank's CEO, Joe Said, who said that as an entity list- ed on the Malta Stock Exchange, Lombard Bank is bound by regulatory obligations, a number of which also relate to disclosure of price sensitive information. He said that once the bank considers it necessary to update the market it will do so by way of company announcements. e bank currently has an allocation of 80 million ordinary shares of 25c each (€20 million), with 45,363,867 shares issued, for a value of €11,340,966.75. e National Development and Social Fund – a government agency set up in 2015 – currently owns a 49.01% shareholding in Lombard Bank. It acquired these shares from the now defunct Cyprus Popular Bank. is shareholding was valued at €51,098,121 at the end of 2020. Over 1,200 shareholders, and investment funds, hold the remaining shares. Besides the NDSF, the other major share- holders are Virtu Holdings Ltd with 9.89%, LifeStar Insurance p.l.c. with 5.59% and First Gemini p.l.c. with 5.31%. Lombard Bank has a 71.5% stake in Malta- Post plc., the national postal operator. When contacted, Ray Ellul, CEO of the NDSF, also would not comment, pending the outcome of the EGM. A financial analyst told Business Today that the proposed share split was not wor- risome to investors. On the other hand, it would facilitate and incentivise trading ac- tivity, since shares would now be more ac- cessible to a wider spectrum of investors. But the share issue could prove quite con- tentious.\ "Any investor will now see their sharehold- ing diluted, unless they invest in the new is- sue and but more shares to maintain their current level of shareholding percentage," the analyst said. at might not matter to most small and retail investors, but it would definitely mat- ter to larger, corporate investors and funds invested in Lombard Bank. He said it would be interesting to see what stance the government, through the NDSF, would take: whether it would buy new shares to maintain a 49.01% stake in the bank, or if it would choose to maintain its current investment and see its share diluted. Bank's strategy Lombard Bank has also updated its strate- gy for further growth over the forthcoming three years. e strategy takes into account the bank's current market position and plans for growth, though without the need for assum- ing a higher risk appetite than at present. e bank says it intends to grow its fee based non-interest income line of business, scale up its range of traditional commer- cial and retail banking services, increase its physical footprint by expanding its branch network, foster new relationships across a wider demographic spectrum, address wid- er stakeholder interests consistent with its corporate values, and further develop and maximise synergies with its subsidiary, Mal- taPost p.l.c. Lombard Bank says implementation of its strategy is set to include further investment in distribution channels, IT infrastructure, customer relationship management sys- tems and human resources. Group Profit Before Tax €17.2M (H1 2021: €5.4M) Profit Attributable to Equity Holders €10.9M (H1 2021: €3.2M) Group Operating Income €28.6M (H1 2021: €32.7M) Bank Cost-to-Income Ratio 57.9% (H1 2021: 60.2%) Customer Deposits €1,009.6M (FYE 2021: €977.1M) Loans & Advances to Customers €704.8M (FYE 2021: €642.9M) Group Total Assets €1,209.7M (FYE 2021: €1,175.4M) Bank Advances to Deposits Ratio 69.7% (FYE 2021: 65.7%) Lombard Bank's half- yearly results for 2022 650,000 passengers travel through MIA in September The last trade in Lombard Bank Malta Plc stock on the Malta Stock Exchange was on 30 September EGM will seek approval for new share issue, share split THE peak summer season ( June-September) in Malta ended with 2.66 million pas- sengers, of which 658,569 travelled through Malta Inter- national Airport in Septem- ber. At 86.4 per cent, Septem- ber's recovery of pre-pandem- ic traffic was similar to the recovery rates posted in July (86.3 per cent) and August (86.5 per cent). In September, 89.5 per cent of the seats available on the flights operated to and from Malta were occupied, mark- ing an increase of 3.3 per cent over the same month in 2019. Top markets Almost no changes from the previous three peak months were observed in relation to the top drivers of traffic, with the Italian market registering an increase of 13.1 per cent in passenger numbers over Sep- tember 2019 and remaining top of the leaderboard for the seventh consecutive month. Italy was followed by the United Kingdom, which gen- erated 33 per cent less traffic than it had in 2019. While Germany ranked third again for the first time in six months, the number of passengers travelling to and from this market remained 34.7 per cent below pre-pan- demic levels. On the other hand, the French market dropped to fourth place, despite regis- tering an increase of 29.5 per cent over pre-pandemic traf- fic. Spain, which ranked fifth, continued to recover at a slow pace, with passenger traffic to and from this market re- maining 18.3 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.