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44 Events maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 MAY 2016 FIMBank holds its 2016 Annual General Meeting FIMBANK plc held its Annual General Meeting at the Hotel In- tercontinental in St Julian's. IN his opening address, the Chairman of the FIMBank Group, John C. Grech, explained the background to the Group's performance last year. Grech de- scribed how shortly after FIM- Bank's last AGM in May 2015, the Group had announced the appointment of Murali Subra- manian as the Group's new Chief Executive Officer. "Following the most difficult year in the Group's history," said Grech, "the priorities for Mu- rali and his strongly reinforced management team were to give stability to the business, the rein- forcement of the governance and risk structures, and the gradual re-building of the portfolios to a sustainable level." FIMBank's Chairman stated that "by pursuing a consolidation strategy aimed at turning around the core operating business, Mu- rali and his team have managed to steer FIMBank well within sight of our goal of sustainable profit- ability. The Group has succeeded in overcoming the substantial im- pairments which marred the 2014 performance, whilst at the same time creating a revenue platform to generate value going forward." Grech added that, "This is re- flected in the results for 2015, which indicate that the FIMBank Group is on the right track. The Group is encouraged by the posi- tive performance registered in the second half of 2015 and the first four months of this year, during which the FIMBank Group reg- istered a profit, a trend which we expect will be sustained through- out 2016." The first item on the Meeting's agenda - the approval of the 2015 consolidated audited financial statements was accompanied by a presentation by Mr Subrama- nian, who explained that for the year ended 31 December 2015, the FIMBank Group registered a loss of USD7.1 million compared to a loss of USD45.2 million in 2014. At 31 December 2015, total Con- solidated Assets stood at USD1.44 billion, a marginal increase of 2% over the USD1.41 billion reported at end 2014, while Total Consoli- dated Liabilities stood at USD1.27 billion, up by 3.5% from USD1.23 billion in 2014. FIMBank's CEO highlighted the fact that during 2015, net impairments decreased by 80%, standing at USD10.3 mil- lion, compared to USD50.7 mil- lion in 2014. "As a result of controlled im- pairments and marked-to-market losses," said Subramanian, "the Group has improved its operating income by USD37.3 million, to USD35.7 million". Commenting on the way for- ward, FIMBank's CEO stated, "Together with my colleagues in the management team, we intend to ensure that FIMBank will con- tinue to respond with agility to the changes in economic cycles across its international geograph- ical presence, and to reposition itself as a growing profitable in- stitution, through adequate re- turns and value creation to all its stakeholders." In his concluding remarks to the AGM, Dr Grech had words of praise for the Group's institu- tional investors, thanking them for their unwavering support. He also thanked his fellow directors, management and staff members for their hard work, dedication and commitment, and the Malta Financial Services Authority for its guidance and support. Finally, he extended his gratitude to all of the Group's shareholders for their, "understanding, and their strong demonstration of loyalty to and confidence in FIMBank". Meanwhile, FIMBank's Board of Directors will not be recom- mending a cash dividend. Share- holders approved resolutions to declare a 1:25 bonus share issue by capitalisation of the share pre- mium account. The Meeting also elected the Board of Directors, which in- cludes Majed Essa Ahmed Al- Ajeel (Chairman of Burgan aBank SAK), Masaud M. J. Hayat (Chairman of United Gulf Bank BSC), Eduardo Eguren (CEO of Burgan Bank SAK). A full list of elected directors may be found on the Bank's website. Following the AGM, the Board of Directors confirmed Dr John C. Grech as Chairman and Mr Masaud Hayat as Vice Chairman. For more information about FIMBank plc, visit www.fimbank.com PHOTOGRAPHY BY RENE ROSSIGNAUD Marsa Power Station photography exhibition in Parliament ENEMALTA plc is inviting the public to visit Id-Dawl tal-Istazz- jon, an exhibition at the House of Representatives, Parliament of Malta, Valletta, featuring artistic photography illustrating the Mar- sa Power Station soon after it was switched off last year. The exhibition is being inaugu- rated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Anglu Farrugia on Monday, May 16, and will re- main open every day until Friday, May 27. Opening times are from Monday to Saturday between 9am and 5pm and on Sunday from 9am until noon. Entry is free of charge but visitors will be encouraged to give donations to the Puttinu Cares Foundation. The 43 participants in this ex- hibition range from professional photographers to individuals who snapped photos with their com- pact cameras or mobile phones. All photos were taken in March 2015 when Enemalta invited the public to tour the 62-year-old power station before it started be- ing dismantled. All submissions entered a competition held in col- laboration with the Malta Insti- tute of Professional Photography. A panel of three professional pho- tographers reviewed the entries and selected the best out of two categories, one for works by pro- fessional photographers and an- other for entries from the general public. The multitude of machinery, pipes, shapes, colours, shadows and textures of the power station offer an endless choice of subjects and angles to photograph, as well as a rare opportunity to produce industrial photography artworks in a Maltese setting. The final artworks exhibited represent even more diversified visuals as the photographers interpreted this location through their own per- spectives, actively selecting what subject matter to highlight in frame and enhancing and altering the images through creative digital processing. After the exhibition, all the pho- tos submitted for the competition will be retained in Enemalta's ar- chives, which include thousands of documents, plans, manuals and photos illustrating the history of electricity in the Maltese Islands. John Ambrogio is the winner of the competition's professional photography category. Jonathan Paris was awarded first prize in the General Category. The panel of judges included Kevin Casha, President of the Malta Institute of Professional Photography and photographers Domenic Aquilina and Albert de Marco. Ing. Edwin Gauci, former manager of the Marsa Power Station, assisted the judging by explaining the signifi- cance of the industrial equipment featured in the photos. For more information about En- emalta plc and the photography exhibition at the House of Repre- sentatives, visit www.enemalta. com.mt HSBC has announced that it will be speeding up the roll out of ATMs equipped with voice technology, thus making automated banking more accessible to visually impaired persons. These new generation ATMs en- able customers, who are visually im- paired, to use the ATM via step by step recorded voice instructions us- ing a standard earphone plugged in to the ATM. During this process the ATM automatically blanks-out the screen in order to ensure customer security and privacy. The Talking ATM features include cash with- drawals, real-time cash deposits, balance enquiries, PIN change and the option to change the language. This announcement was made during an HSBC organised event to which members of the Gozo Aid for the visually impaired, Torball So- ciety of the Blind, Ghaqda Maltija Persuni Neqsin mid-Dawl and Kummissjoni Nazzjonali Persuni B'Diżabilita' (KNPD) were invited. Participants who attended this ses- sion had the opportunity to famil- iarise themselves with the Talking ATM and the various features the machines offers. Michael Scerri, a visually impaired customer of HSBC since the Mid- Med Bank days said "Before this up- grade, using an ATM was a struggle every time but now, with this new technology, I feel in control and completely aware of what was hap- pening when I was using the ATM." Addressing the participants, HSBC Bank Malta CEO Andrew Beane said that, "HSBC Bank Malta is committed to keep on investing in our machines to make them easier to operate for every one of our cus- tomers and in this regard we have decided to speed up the roll out of voice technology on our ATMs." EY property debate sparks healthy discussion on property prices ALMOST 150 people turned up for a debate organised by EY which asked the question: Are current property prices in Malta sustainable? Surveyed before the debate, more than two thirds of attend- ees believed prices were unsus- tainable. Following the debate, the numbers evened out slightly but still with a majority of those present skeptical about pricing. The event was held at Xara Lodge and organised in collabo- ration with the Department of Economics at University of Malta and supported by Lion Malta. A team led by economist Dr Marie Briguglio argued that the island's ever-increasing property prices were not only unsustain- able but could cause a whole raft of social and environmental con- sequences, including lack of af- fordable housing that would have to be shouldered by the state. Head of EY's Economic Ad- visory Chris Meilak led a team that argued the property trend in Malta could be maintained due to low interest rates, high employment, the island's strong economic performance and an inf lux of foreign workers. Both teams were given the same data set on which to base their arguments. The event was at- tended by a number of key people in Malta's property industry, who challenged the two debate teams at various stages of the discus- sion. The debate was preceded by a presentation about the economic impact of an eventual Brexit, giv- en by Henry Worthington, from Oxford Economics. Oxford Economics has used its global economic model to study the possible implications of such an exit, including alterna- tive Brexit scenarios, on various economies (including the EU and Malta). HSBC Malta supports Visually Impaired customers with ATM technology Visually impaired HSBC customer Joseph Stafrace, accompanied by his guide dog, trying his hand on the bank's Talking ATM as Gordon Gilford and An- drew Beane look on The FIMBank a.g.m. was told that the bank is well within sight of its goal of sustainable profitability