Cim Group

CIM GROUP

Breaking ground in the Mauritian financial services market

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Money Having been the first non-banking financial institution in Sub-Saharan Africa to issue Mastercard and Visa credit cards, CIM Group continues to pioneer new technology-driven solutions for its customers in Mauritius and elsewhere Writer: Tom Wadlow | Project Manager: Sam Love

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ub-Saharan Africa is one of the world’s most exciting regions when looking at the potential for technology to transform financial services.

Transform may not even be the most appropriate word. The sheer potential of digital and mobile to provide firsttime banking access to millions of African consumers is cause for a wave of optimism and activity.

Take mobile industry association GSMA and its latest State of the Industry Report on Mobile.

According to its findings, 395.7 million mobile money accounts were registered across Sub-Saharan Africa as of December 2018, up 13.6 percent year-on-year.

In terms of transaction volume and value, this respectively measured 1.7 billion and $26.8 billion, rises of 11.8 and 15.3 percent on 2017.

Kenya, notably through M-Pesa, is a leading light in this field, its mobile digital ecosystem and strong consumer

awareness well documented.

Indeed, the latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya shows that mobile money transactions stood at Sh3.98 trillion ($38.5 billion) in 2018, up 10 percent on 2017 and equivalent to $108 million of activity every day. Strikingly, the value of these transactions represents some 44 percent of the country’s GDP. It is this vibrant market which has attracted investment from the likes of Mauritian financial services firm Cim Group.

Led by Chief Executive Officer Mark van Beuningen, in 2018 the company set up a fintech hire purchase business under the name of Cim Credit Kenya.

Writing in the organisation’s 2018 annual report, he stated: “We engaged a technology partner to support us in deploying a fintechenabled business model leveraging upon Kenya’s unique mobile digital ecosystem and high consumer

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CIM GROUP – AN INTRODUCTION

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Listed on the Official Market of the Stock Exchange and headquartered in Mauritius, Cim Financial Services Ltd (Cim Group) operates in two major subcategories – finance and investment.

frAsia Bank Ltd is one of the main banks which has accompanied Cim Group in its growth strategy.

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Cim Finance: Responsible for the majority of the group’s revenue, this area of the business provides solutions to consumers, SMEs and large corporates and has been present on the credit market since 1987. The unit employs more than 600 people across offices and counters in Mauritius and Rodrigues.

With our expertise and reputation for excellence already well established, we offer tailor-made financial solutions for the different entities within the group and maintain a solid business relationship.

Investments: As well as owning a sizable share in South African payments firm iVeri Payment Technologies, Cim also operates a hire purchase business in Kenya under the name of Cim Credit Kenya.

AfrAsia has also been appointed as Cim’s settlement bank with Visa for all cards business operations, made possible through regular collaboration and commitment from both entities.

The group has been dealing with us since 2009.

Over the past decade, we have leveraged on our key strengths to better serve our client by responding to their evolving needs and providing financial support – this has involved substantial increases in Cim’s credit lines in order to sustain its development.

awareness of mobile phone app-based lending platforms.

“We are now partnering with a number of established consumer electronic and furniture retail players in Kenya, as we do in Mauritius, and looking to further expand our retail partner footprint.”

Cim’s home financial services market in is an important one, not least for the Mauritian economy to which it contributes around 11-12 percent of GDP. As in Kenya, technology has proven vital for Cim Group to strengthen its core business

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in Mauritius through the course of 2018 and 2019, the CEO having outlined several strategic moves made last year.

For example, the company has implemented an enterprise data warehouse (EDW) designed to give it a 360-degree view of its customers.

The new system has allowed Cim Group to gather real time data and insights, and deployment of advanced analytics will enable better and faster decisions to be made by management.

“We have also automated a number of our core lending processes

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T +230 208 5500 E afrasia@afrasiabank.com

www.afrasiabank.com

Transforming potential into performance

We are underpinned by our ambition to transform your business to its fullest potential in Mauritius, Africa and the region. Offering tailor-made corporate and investment banking solutions, our difference lies in our focus and commitment to our clients’ needs.

Corporate Banking | Global Business Banking | Private Banking and Wealth Management | Treasury and Markets AfrAsia Bank Limited is licenced and regulated by the Bank of Mauritius. afrasia@afrasiabank.com | Tel: +230 208 5500 www.afrasiabank.com | Mauritius | South Africa

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INVESTMENTS – IVERI Cim Group has a diverse property portfolio in Mauritius comprising office, commercial and land assets.

Another avenue of investment is in payment technologies, where the company has a significant stake in pan-African electronic payment solutions firm iVeri Payment Technologies.

Established in 1998 and based in Johannesburg, South Africa, iVeri provides ecommerce solutions for merchants and is used by banks in 10 countries across the continent. Western Africa is served from a base in Lagos (Nigeria), East Africa from Nairobi (Kenya) and Southern Africa from its headquarters.

One of the first ecommerce transaction companies in Africa, iVeri processes millions of payments every year.

More information at: www.iveri.com

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that now enables straight through processing of the loan application and approval process within a few minutes,” added van Beuningen in the 2018 annual report.

“Cim Finance Ltd processes over 500,000 small ticket size loans each year, therefore optimising the efficiency of our lending processes leads to significant improvements in turnaround time and customer satisfaction.”

Last year also saw the company pilot a digital platform for its retail merchant partners, a move which enable the 600 vendors where Cim does not have a point of sale process to provide a more efficient and customer-centric service.

Beyond business

Investments such as this appear to have placed the business in a strong position as 2019 progresses.

According to its latest financial statement, Cim Group increased its net operating income by 22 percent for the six months ending March 31, 2019.

This equated to 859.1 million Mauritian rupees (approximately $23.82 million) for the period, a solid half-year profit of MUR 191.3 million which is 34 percent higher compared to the previous year.

This promising return has been driven by a growing sales volume in the core consumer finance business, while the greenfield fintech hire purchase operation in Kenya continues to show encouraging progress in sales.

That Cim Group is performing soundly financially enables it to engage in an active corporate social responsibility programme.

Grounded in the vision to make a positive impact on the lives of those less fortunate, the firm’s CSR is initiated both in the form of financial investment and encouraging its own employees to participate in collective efforts.

Contributions are managed via a not-for-profit unit called Cim CSR Fund

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IVERI Helping Acquirers Build their Business iVeri supports acquirers to build their businesses by providing them with expertise, experience and a growing ecosystem.

Expertise The iVeri Payment Gateway is a tried and tested multi-channel, card present and card not present gateway.

Besides its sophisticated transaction capabilities, it can also switch transactions to multiple processors.

The gateway comes with a Terminal Manager for the driving of stand-alone payment terminals, as well as a terminal aggregator for integrated multi-lane uses. There are various APIs that allow for third party access to the system, options for ecommerce and a choice of models for MPos. Ecosystem iVeri has many integrations and interfaces with platforms that require payments. Many of these are currently focused on the hospitality industry, but there are also a substantial number of integrations in the retail and parking industries. Many of these integrations provide an acquirer with a competitive edge in niche industries in their markets. Don’t have current processing capabilities, iVeri is already integrated to most of the top third party processors.

Experience Working with banks in 11 countries, as well all the major card companies gives us a big-picture perspective on acquiring. Our customers have the comfort of our systems being used in many jurisdictions and meeting the requirements and certifications of the leaders in the industry. Our PCI-DSS certified data centre and tokenisation system have proven track records. The amount of corporate knowledge and experience that we have built of the 22 years of being in business shows in the sophistication and intricacy of systems.

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Helping Acquirers Step Up their Business

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has many xpertise iVeri integrations and

The iVeri Payment Gateway is a tried and tested multi-channel, card present and card not present Gateway.

There are also various APIs that allow for Third Party access to the system

www.iveri.com

interfaces with platforms that provide an acquirer with a competitive edge in niche industries in their markets.

22 years of working with banks in 11 countries, as well as with all the major Card Companies has resulted in the robustness, sophistication and adaptability of iVeri's systems.

iVeri — At the Heart Of transactions

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Ltd to ensure a stringent governance process is followed, with projects being approved at director level.

Such projects are clearly split into three categories – engagement, education and environment.

In the first of these subcategories, Cim partners closely with Cité Coeur Immaculé de Marie in the Riviere Du Rempart district of northeastern Mauritius. Together the organisations renovate and construct houses for local families, while another partnership with Ti Rayons Soleil involves empowering female entrepreneurship in the area.

Education is another hugely important focus for Cim CSR. The group supports a number of programmes, many of which geared towards keeping children away from illegal drugs and alcohol.

For example, it sponsored the creation of an after-school club in

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The group supports a number of programmes, many of which geared towards keeping children away from illegal drugs and alcohol’ Riviere Du Rempart in partnership with NGO Gender Links, a scheme designed to help adolescents in their studies and to provide extracurricular activities such as painting, music and dance.

Arguably the most significant educational project being supported, however, is a drug awareness campaign aimed at schoolchildren aged 12-14 in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The programme consists of a workshop called Train the Trainers

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which readied teachers and social workers for the rollout of the curriculum across their schools both in Mauritius and nearby Rodrigues. In terms of reach, some 1,120 students and 50 educational workers have been involved.

The third CSR focus area concentrates on the environment, the most important programme enacted last year involving the sponsorship of a project initiated by the Mauritius Wildlife Fund for the conservation of rare plants.

All projects combined, the 20172018 financial year saw Cim spend

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MUR 5.5 million on social activities, helping to embed the company into its surrounding communities and create a long-lasting social legacy.

And it is this legacy which the company will hope to embed as it moves through the rest of 2019 and onwards, building on what van Beuningen described as a very encouraging 2018.

“We believe that a well-executed Mauritian and regional strategy will reward shareholders with attractive returns and a strong growth story,” he stated in last year’s annual report.

Come 2019’s edition, and this forecast could well have been proven right.

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