Afinitas Limited
Afinitas Abridged Full Year Results
The Directors of Afinitas Limited are pleased to announce results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2019. The operating entities within the Afinitas Group comprise Africa Events Limited, Adventis Limited, and EQOS Holding Co. In addition, Afinitas holds a 9.6% stake in Icecap Trust Holdings Limited. Adventis Limited (Adventis), a 66% owned specialist investment management company focusing on the African
continent. The Adventis investment team includes some of the most experienced and successful investment managers in Africa. The company is looking to offer pan African equity and income funds to investors interested in increasing their exposure to Africa, one of the fastest growing world economies. Our belief is that African debt and equity products are looking increasingly attractive from both a valuation and risk perspective relative to alternative investments in the developed world. Management continues to focus on growing the Adventis Africa Enhanced Income Strategy and the Adventis Africa Equity Strategy. Within Adventis, a large amount of time during the year was necessarily spent on obtaining the various regulatory approvals needed in order to market a wider range of products. These approvals are now in place allowing marketing to commence in earnest. Many additional initiatives, apart from fund strategies, are being examined each of which could prove attractive to global investors. Africa Events Limited (AEL), a 50% owned event management company focused on promoting trade and investment into and with Africa. AEL hosted the 7th “AFSIC – Investing in Africa” conference in London in May 2019. AFSIC is rapidly becoming one of the most important Africa trade and investment events globally and has become a major conduit of investment into Africa. It attracts many of the continent’s most important investors, dealmakers and corporate leaders. AFSIC 2019 showed strong growth in delegate numbers and revenue. AFSIC 2020 was due to be a record year from an attendance and revenue perspective but the event has been postponed, post year end, due to the COVID-19 (corona virus) epidemic. This postponement is expected to depress this group’s result by USD 214 000.
Eqos Holding Co, a 90% owned subsidiary of Afinitas. This company owns 100% of EQOS Services (EQOS) which is the first foreign owned Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is an attractive destination for BPO as it has a talented pool of educated, motivated and skilled youth. EQOS is still in the early stages of development but has established a suite of both international and local clients for whom it is undertaking outsourced IT services. Icecap Trust Holdings Limited (Icecap). Afinitas has a 9.6% stake in Icecap, a company based in Jersey that provides trust and company administration services. The company is in the early stages of development and is progressing well. Icecap continues to win mandates and is actively discussing the provision of services with a number of additional parties. Management focus during 2019 was on increasing revenue in all the different businesses. All three main operating businesses, and Icecap, are now generating income. The result was a 72% increase of revenue from $711,310 to $1,224,017, and a reduction in the loss for the year from $1.2m to $741k. In accordance with IFRS 9 relevant equity investments have been written down to a prudent fair value. An adjustment for 2019 of US$301,542 has been reflected in other comprehensive income in line with the provisions of IFRS 9. These investments may be written back in future years as the companies reach breakeven. This strong growth in income is pleasing, and management is focused on ensuring the growth in income continues. AFSIC 2020 was showing strong year on year growth again as it develops into one of the most important conduits of investment into Africa, and we were expecting to be able to report strong group income growth again in 2021 and a continued drive towards profitability at the group level. however, the recent postponement of AFSIC, due to the COVID-19 epidemic globally, will adversely affect Afinitas’ income in FY2020 as a one-off unforeseeable event. Regardless of the unique circumstances of the postponement of AFSIC, and the negative financial impact on your group, Afinitas has built up one of the most valuable business networks in Africa, and the value of this network should become more apparent in future years.
