Bloomfield Investment has maintained the long-term rating “A with a stable outlook” previously awarded to Oragroup S.A., the parent company of the Orabank banking group, announced the managers of this Abidjan-based rating agency.

Bloomfield also kept the short-term rating “A2 with a stable outlook” unchanged. The rating is valid during the period from September 2020 to August 2021. The rationale for the long-term rating and the outlook is based on Oragroup's high credit quality. “The protective factors are good,” say Bloomfield leaders. However, they believe that risk factors are more variable and more important during periods of economic pressure.

In the short term, the grade awarded is based on the certainty of timely repayment, which is good. Bloomfield also notes that liquidity factors and the essential elements of companies are healthy. “Although ongoing financing needs may increase total funding requirements, access to capital markets is good,” notes Bloomfield, who describes risk factors as minimal. The rating is based on four positive factors. Bloomfield thus evokes a good capacity to mobilize resources, supported by excellent financing flexibility, a strengthening of the governance framework, acquired support from shareholders and a good evolution of the Group's banking performance indicators

However, Bloomfield managers noted a number of fragile factors in Oragroup's rating. In particular, they referred to the declining net income of the holding company, in connection with the fall in dividends received from subsidiaries and the insufficient control of expenses, a significant increase in the holding's debt, due to the mobilization of loans for the Group's development, a delay in achieving financial performance objectives or even the changing cost of the Group's risk

Created in 2000 as a public limited company with a Board of Directors, the Financial BC group has been a holding company with financial participation since 2009, present in 12 countries in West and Central Africa. The company then changed its name in 2011 to ORAGROUP

31 December 2020, it had achieved a consolidated after-tax profit of 18.327 billion FCFA, up sharply by 46.72%. Its total balance sheet increased from 2159.904 billion FCFA in 2018 to 2634.338 billion FCFA in 2019

Its net banking income grew by 19.934 billion FCFA, from 126.918 billion in 2018 to 146.842 billion in 2019. The same upward trend is noted in terms of gross operating income, with a turnover of 46.495 billion FCFA (+31.66%

However, the cost of risk increased by 4.655 billion FCFA to 22.705 billion from 18.050 billion in 2018. For its part, operating income increased by 37.79% to 23.790 billion FCFA compared to 17.265 billion FCFA at 31