2merkato

Zemen Bank SC is looking to foreclose on the first Ethiopian car assembly, Holland Car for defaulting on a loan arrangement according to sources at the bank.

Holland Car has fallen notably behind on loan payments and has failed to respond to repeated cautions from the bank according to sources.

The auto assembler was particularly affected by the 20% devaluation of the birr against the dollar in September of 2010, as the contract it had signd with customers in 2009-2010 did not foresee the devaluation and the ensuing price escalation explained sources.

Zemen Bank, Ethiopia declared 123 million birr in gross profits in the 2011-12 financial year, netting 86 million birr. The revenue earned by the bank is 2 million birr more than what the bank had declared in the previous financial year according to the statement by the bank. Zemen was able to deliver 58% in earnings per share to its shareholders it reported.

The rate of growth for the bank was slower as compared to the performance it had registered in the previous year said Ermias Eshetu, Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Services with Zemen.

The investment and capital of the bank has been tied up in provisional investment costs for the construction of the future headquarters of the bank and in the purchase of National Bank bonds as per requirement he explained.

Zemen Bank Ethiopia introduced a new pre-paid card service that can be used without requiring an account at the bank. The cards will be preloaded with a determined amount of funds that can be drawn from ATMs or used for purchases at POS terminals.

The prepaid cards, expected to be made available for a range of denominations from 100-50,000 birr, will be equipped with a personal identification number to facilitate cash withdrawal said Tsegaye Tetemke President of Zemen.

The prepaid cards can be used as expense cards or be gifted to avoid the need to carry around a lot of cash he noted.

Zemen Bank has announced a partnership with Mastercard that will see the introduction of the first-ever Mastercard branded prepaid contactless travel card in Ethiopia. Zemen Mastercard prepaid travel cards will enable cardholders to use cards with either of the two major currencies, U.S. Dollars and Euros, based on their travel destination.

Ethiopia's Zemen Bank announced it has sold close to 200 million birr in shared in the past two month, achieving its target of capital increase for the fiscal year. The sale of shares has been limited to existing share holders in the bank. The total capital of the bank now stands at 400 million birr, a two fold increase from the previous year.

The Bank noted that its deposit base in the first nine months of the current fiscal year has increased 42 percent and had passed 2.5 billion birr, all mobilized from a single main branch.