Impacted by the coronavirus health crisis, the Attijariwafa bank group has finally decided to increase its share capital. The bank now increases its share capital (issue premium included) to a total amount of 1,416,552,692 dirhams (158.2 million USD).

Meeting on December 23, 2020, the Board of Directors set the final characteristics and terms of this operation published Monday, December 28 on the Casablanca stock exchange. Thus, Attijariwafa bank will issue a maximum number of 3,650,909 new shares at an issue price of 388 dirhams, ie a nominal value of 10 dirhams/share and an issue premium of 378 dirhams/share.

The main objective of this operation is to strengthen and maintain the current regulatory capital and, consequently, to strengthen the solvency ratios of Attijariwafa bank. It will also make it possible to finance the organic development of the bank in Morocco and abroad, and to anticipate the various regulatory developments in the countries of presence.

The increase in share capital is reserved for holders of Attijariwafa bank shares on the eve of the detachment of the sums distributed scheduled for January 5, 2021.

It should be noted that the group suffered the negative effects of the coronavirus during the 3rd quarter of 2020. With in particular on arrival, three indicators in red during the period considered.

Consolidated net income and net income, group share amounted respectively to 2.5 billion dirhams (279.2 million dollars) and 2 billion dirhams (223.3 million dollars), down 52.5% and 55.2 %. As for the cost of risk, it stood at 4.6 billion dirhams (513.7 million dollars), showing an increase of 239% compared to the same period of 2019. This under the effect of the deterioration risks and anticipatory and prudent provisioning related to the health crisis and its effects on the economic environment.

As a reminder, Morocco's leading bank has undertaken to accompany and support more than 32,900 Moroccan companies, mostly VSMEs, through the distribution of 27.1 billion dirhams (3 billion dollars) in additional credits since the start of the crisis.