Bank chairman Christian Lemmerich told shareholders that 2003 had been a good year for the bank in spite of stiff competition.

The bank increased its activity across a range of products and continued with the process of customer segmentation, continued to raise its profile more prominently and its range of deposit accounts attracted attention from both retail as well as the larger customers. The bank also provided a range of investment services in both locally and overseas-quoted instruments.

The accounts the shareholders approved covered the whole 15-month period till the end of last December since the last AGM decided to change the financial year-end from 30 September to 31 December.

The bank reported a pre-tax profit of Lm2.16 million, a record performance by the bank and a 53 per cent improvement on 2002 or 24 per cent if taken on an annualised basis. Gross operating income rose by 24 per cent as well to Lm4.72 million. Customer deposits now reached Lm167.6 million and total assets grew by 16 per cent during the period under review to Lm186 million.

Net assets per share worked out at Lm2.88.

The board of directors recommended, and the shareholders approved, a final gross dividend of nine cents per share, which added to the interim gross dividend of six cents per share approved last October, amounts to an aggregate total proposed dividend of 15 cents. This represented an annualised 20 per cent increase over 2002’s, which was 10 cents.

As in previous years, shareholders can receive the dividend either in cash or by the issue of new shares at Lm3.705 per share, while the bank’s share market price was Lm4.16 as of yesterday.

The bank, Mr Lemmerich told shareholders, is well positioned to further expand its activities and enduring sustained and successful growth following the business and operating decisions to be taken later on this year.

At the end of the meeting, Gainfilippo Maiga and Michael Zammit were elected as directors.