Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar improves income, profits, solvency and efficiency

• Customer funds under management are up 6.7%, driven by an increase in deposits and sight accounts, insurance and mutual funds.

• New lending is up 8.7%, especially to borrowers in the agri-food sector, small and medium-sized enterprises and the self-employed.

• The cost-income ratio has improved 2.8 percentage points, to 57.58%, assisted by the reduction in total expenses as a result of network optimisation, the digital transformation and efficient use of resources.

• Pre-tax profit climbs to 54.12 million euros, 6.6% more than in the first half of the previous year and net profit is 45.18 million euros, up 2% year-on-year.

• Proactive management of non-performing assets brings an improvement in the Group’s credit quality, with NPLs down 29.5% year-on-year (a decrease of 1,148 million euros) and sales of foreclosed assets up 25.1%, pushing the NPL ratio down 3.6 percentage points, to 8.49%.

• The total capital ratio is up almost one percentage point compared to the beginning of the year, at 13.72%, and the CET1 ratio stands at 12.01% on a phased in basis, well above the levels required by the supervisor.

Presentation of Consolidated Results 1H 2018 (PDF 3,72 MB.)

Business performance

Total on-balance-sheet assets are up 7.2% year-on-year, at 42,816 million euros, and total business volume under management stand at 73,455 million euros, up 4.6%.Thanks to the growth in sight deposits and mutual funds, customers’ retail funds are up 5.1% year-on-year and off-balance sheet funds are up 18.5%. All this translates into a 6.7% increase in customer funds under management.

The specialised support provided to the agri-food sector, SMEs and the self-employed has contributed to an 8.7% increase in new lending, with the result that performing loans have grown 4.2% year-on-year, to 28,909 million euros.

Grupo Cajamar once again demonstrates its position as the most trusted institution for the agri-food sector, posting a further increase in its market share in Spain, which stands at 13.7%, thanks not only to its knowledge of the sector and the needs of companies and producers and its strong relationships with all the industry players, but also to its broad and specialised range of products and services for the entire agri-food supply chain.

The Group also continues to improve its market share in the Spanish financial system, both in loans, with a share of 2.76%, and in deposits, with a 2.23% share, backed by its differential commercial strategy as a social and cooperative bank.

Results

As a result of its financing activity, Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar obtained Pre-tax profit of 54.12 million euros, 6.6% more than in the first half of the previous year and the consolidated net profit climbs to 45.18 million euros, up 2% year-on-year. The main contributing factors are the increase in gross income and the containment of operating expenses.

Gross income is up 3.6%, driven by the increase in net interest income, thanks to the growth of performing loans to customers (+3.4%), and commissions in relation to mutual funds, insurance products, pension plans and consumer transactions.

Optimisation of the commercial network, the digital transformation and efficient use of resources also contribute to a 1.2% decline in total expenses, a 2.8 percentage point improvement in the cost-income ratio, which ends the period at 57.58%, and a 10.9% increase in net income before provisions.

Risk management

Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar maintains its policy of prudence and continues to clean up its balance sheet and meet provisioning requirements. Its credit quality continued to improve in the first half of the year.

As a result, the NPL ratio has fallen 3.6 percentage points, to 8.49%, with NPLs down 29.5% (1,148 million euros) and sales of foreclosed assets up 25.1%, compared to the first half of the previous year, the most notable sale being that of the Galeón portfolio, in June, comprising almost 300 million euros of NPLs, foreclosed assets and write-offs. The NPA coverage ratio, considering the debt forgiveness in the foreclosure procedure, is up 0.7 percentage points year-on-year, at 48.55%.

Solvency and liquidity

During the first half, Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar continued to reinforce its solvency and liquidity. After applying IFRS 9 on 1 January 2018, the total capital ratio, phased in, is up almost one percentage point compared to the beginning of the year, at 13.72%, while the fully loaded ratio stands at 12.78%, thanks to the increase in eligible capital (consisting of high quality capital and reserves), which is up 5.5%, at 3,213 million euros. Thus, the CET1 ratio, which reflects the highest quality capital, is 12.01% phased-in, amply exceeding the supervisor’s requirements.

Moreover, the Group has a comfortable level of wholesale funding and unfettered access to the wholesale markets, considerable capacity to generate liquid assets and a healthy liquidity position. It complies with the limits imposed by the European Banking Authority, with maturities covered in forthcoming years, free access to the markets and high volumes of securities eligible as collateral with the ECB. In June the Group placed a 500 million euros issue of five-year mortgage covered bonds, which was 1.8 times oversubscribed.

The liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) stands at 198.64% and the net stable funding ratio (NSFR), at 116.50%.

Commercial network

The strategy of putting the customer experience at the centre of the business and promoting value added products to companies, the self-employed and individuals characterises the financial services which the Group’s 5,570 professionals provide to the Group’s more than 3.5 million customers through its 1,036 branches and 1,509 ATMs, as well as its electronic banking, telephone banking and mobile banking channels. It is worth noting that the number of active digital banking customers has reached 694,000, while the Wefferent app already has 147,000 digital users who prefer to bank online, with no fees and with a free bank card.

Social activity

Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar maintains its commitment to the agri-food sector, carrying out research projects in which it works closely with public institutions and research centres, technology companies and agri-food companies. During the first half of 2018, its experimental centres were visited by 2,304 professionals; and 60 knowledge transfer activities were organised, with 5,928 participants. During this period, Grupo Cajamar issued 10 publications.

Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar has also recently started the following initiatives:

• High impact conferences on the future of agri-food sustainability, with six events held in the first months of 2018, with 1,130 participants:

- Experts Forum on Healthy Eating. Madrid.16 – 19 April.

- Industry Forum “Outlook for Spanish Agriculture in 2050”. Madrid. 25 April.

- Symposium on Organic Farming. Almería.16 and 17 May.

- Industry Forum “The CAP after 2020”. Madrid. 18 May.

- II International Conference on Bioeconomics. Barcelona. 14 June.

- Report on the Spanish Agri-food Sector. Madrid. 4 July.

• Startup of Cajamar Agri-food School, with six training programmes, featuring diversity of content, flexible solutions and scalability:

- Futuro (“Future”) Programme for young agri-food entrepreneurs, aimed at training young agri-food entrepreneurs in business management techniques that will enhance their competitive capabilities and growth potential.

- Lidera (“Lead”) Programme for senior managers of agri-food companies, aimed at strengthening the leadership capacity of Spanish agri-food companies to meet the challenges of a changing, globalized and digital world.

- Supera (“Exceed”) Programme for executive managers of agri-food companies, aimed at updating their management knowledge to include the most innovative management trends.

- Oportunidad (“Opportunity”) Programme for Governing Boards of agri-food cooperatives, aimed at giving the members of the Governing Boards of agri-food cooperatives management insights that will help them improve the competitiveness of their cooperatives.

- Innova (“Innovate”) Programme, aimed at fostering business innovation through the sharing of innovative agri-food-related experiences in the rural environment among professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs, so as to help reinforce the sector’s productive capacity, giving innovation a vital role in meeting the present and future challenges facing the rural economy.

- Continúa (“Continue”) Programme, aimed at updating innovative knowledge in the business community, so as to Foster creative management of business challenges, promoting team work in applying innovation in decision making and the performance of important tasks.

• Creation of a High-Tech Company Incubator for the sustainable use and management of water resources. Since it was first created, Cajamar has been committed to innovation in the agri-food sector. Since 1975 it has focused its ongoing support through its Experimental Stations, paying special attention to sustainability and efficiency in the use of natural resources, especially water. For that reason Cajamar is promoting the creation of a High Tech Incubator to help convert innovative water-related ideas into products and that will generate knowledge, wealth and employment. This project receives economic support from the ERDF Funds and will be carried out over a five-year period.