Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1524716
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 31 JULY 2024 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Bank of Valletta interim pre-tax profits at €148.2 million BANK of Valletta registered pre-tax profits of €148.2 million in the first half of 2024, up 40.9% (€105.1m) from the same period in 2023. BOV attributed the increase to strong growth in interest in- come, and to a lesser extent, from net fee and commission streams. The bank shifted short-term liquidity into long-term assets so as to ensure longer term profitability, in anticipation of monetary policy easing by the ECB, with a first rate cut actual- ly materialising in June 2024. Its treasury portfolio registered an increase of 13.5% compared to December 2023 whilst the credit portfolio growth rate continued on an upward path with an over- all increase of 6.1%. Positive results were achieved on both the commercial and retail lending portfolios, with a slight increase in customer de- posits of 0.1% that led to a gross loan-to-deposit ratio of 54.7%, reflecting a 5.5% growth over the same period last year and 3% above the end of year 2023 po- sition. Net Interest Income (NII) reached €193.6 million, an in- crease of 21.1%, driven by the ex- pansion in both customer lend- ing and proprietary investment portfolios, as well as improved deposit rates on cash balanc- es. Interest expense increased marginally to €26.9m (€23.3m) which is mainly composed of the Minimum Requirement for own Funds and Eligible Liabilities (MREL) bond cost. Net Fee and Commission rev- enue accounted for 16% of the Bank's total operating income, reaching €36.7m, a growth of 6.5%. Excluding strategic costs, oper- ating costs registered a decrease of €2.3 million down to €90.7m (€93m). Human capital, followed by technology-related expenses, together accounted for 68% of total operating costs of bank. Total strategic investments on digitalisation so far amounted to €4.2 million. Net Expected Credit Losses (ECL) amounted to a net re- lease of €5.2 million (€4.6m net charge) which was influenced by an improvement in both the non-performing and un- der-performing ratios as well as strengthened collateral position on a number of key non-per- forming assets. The ratio of non-performing loans to the total credit port- folio also remained in line with that registered in December at 3.0% (December 2023: 3.1%). The net value of non- perform- ing debt written off, after recov- eries, was negligible for the pe- riod, also being reflective of the positive impact from the NPL sale of 2023. The Group's total assets stood at €14.4 billion at the mid-point of 2024, resulting in a marginal decrease of €59.6 million com- pared to the end of 2023 (€14.5 billion). The overall decrease in assets is reflective of the cor- responding reduction in total liabilities, namely that related to amounts owed to banks re- sulting from a decrease in repos trading. The loans and advances to cus- tomers amounted to €6.6 billion at the end of the first half (De- cember 2023: €6.2 billion), re- sulting in the above noted net in- crease of €374.0 million or 6.1% with high growth levels being registered on both business and retail advances. On the liabilities side, there was a reversal in the trend that ensued over the previous quar- ters, where customer deposits experienced a marginal increase of €14.9 million, equivalent to 0.1% and reaching €12.2 billion. The increase was entirely attrib- utable to personal customers whereas the corporate deposits remained practically flat and in line with the amount registered at the start of the year. The Group's liquidity ratio as measured by the Liquidity Cov- erage Ratio (LCR) and the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) remained well above the mini- mum regulatory requirements, with the LCR ratio reading at 357% at the end June 2024, close to the 362% as at Decem- ber 2023. Total Group Equity stood at €1.3 billion, an increase of €68.7 million derived from the shift to retained earnings. THE Nationalist Party has asked the Auditor General to investigate the planned Magħtab incinerator project, which tender was recently annulled by the civil court. PN MPs Graham Bencini, Dar- ren Carabott and Claudette Butt- igieg, who sit on parliament's Public Accounts Committee, on Tuesday presented their request to the Auditor General. They are asking that the Nation- al Audit Office probe the process by which the €600 million tender was awarded. The Appeals Court annulled the Magħtab incinerator tender last month and ordered that the bids be adjudicated anew because members of the adjudicating and revision boards at the Contracts Department had a conflict of in- terest. The Magħtab incinerator is a crucial component in Malta's waste management strategy since it will help reduce the dependence on landfilling for non-recyclable waste. The PN's request was also signed by shadow environment minister Rebekah Borg and climate change spokesperson Eve Borg Bonello. The request was filed following a decision taken by the PN parlia- mentary group. "The PN will keep on insisting that people should have peace of mind that their money is being spent in a responsible way and all residents enjoy a clean and healthy environment," the PN spokesper- sons said. In a statement, WasteServ wel- comed the Opposition's request for the NAO audit. WasteServ said it had engaged leading global engineering firm COWI, which ranks first inter- nationally in solid waste manage- ment consultancy services, and UK-based consultancy firm Frith Resource Management, to inde- pendently audit the entire €600 million procurement procedure right up to the evaluation of the submitted bids "Frith's report confirmed that the recommended award, and the procurement process, were con- ducted in a fair, equitable and just manner," WasteServ said. "In fact, the Court of Appeal's judgment did not take issue with the procedure adopted by Was- teServ to rank bidders or the scoring issued therein — which was green-lighted by the best in- ternational players in the field — but concentrated solely on what it deemed as perceived conflicts of interest related to the Public Con- tracts Review Board." WasteServ now awaits direction from the NAO to deliver the pro- curement file in full as soon as it is requested to do so. The file, con- taining 47 individual box-files, is still sealed under signatures since the day it was deposited in Court on 27 March, 2024. "WasteServ will cooperate fully with the NAO office," the compa- ny said, adding that the proposed project had already been subjected to all the required environmental studies which confirmed the net environmental positive impacts it would have. PN asks Auditor General to probe botched Maghtab incinerator tender PN MPs (from left) Graham Bencini, Darren Carabott and Claudette Buttigieg