JSE Listing

Dr Willem van Aardt co-founds Thuthukani Group Limited, which lists on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) during 1999.

At the time of its listing, Thuthukani had 70 microlending branches and 120 debt collection branches.

Thuthukani Group Limited

Following a disagreement with the Chief Executive Officer of Thuthukani Group Limited with regards to the strategic direction that the Group should pursue, Dr van Aardt resigns and sells his shares in Thuthukani to Saambou Bank, which eventually proceeds to acquire the entire share capital in Thuthukani.

When Saambou Bank was liquidated in 2002, the various divisions of Thuthukani were sold to the highest bidder. All of Thuthukani's various businesses remained profitable and in operation.

Finbond Established

Dr van Aardt establishes Finbond as a debt consolidation, bridging finance and second-bond origination company in January 2003.

Finbond commences the year with 4 employees. Initially, due to small origination volumes, Finbond is forced to submit all its origination via other origination companies. In 2004 Finbond negotiates its own direct origination contracts with ABSA and First National Bank (FNB), together with lead originator agreements with Bondmaster for Nedbank and Standard Bank Business.

Diversification

In order to position itself as a significant South African mortgage originator and non-bank lender, Finbond, at the beginning of 2007, acquires Independent Bond Originators (IBO), Dimension Home Loans and Bondmaster. Following the acquisitions, Finbond employs 110 people. Finbond lists on the AltX sector of the JSE as the fourth largest Mortgage Originator in South Africa, originating mortgages amounting to R1 billion per month to the four major banks. Finbond acquires Bond Excel and increases mortgage origination volumes to R1.5 billion per month.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, following the worldwide sub-prime crisis and collapse of various large retail and investment banks in the United States and Europe, the South African mortgage origination market declines rapidly as the four major banks lose their appetite for mortgages. Mortgage origination volumes decline by more than 80% in a six-month period, and Dr van Aardt and the Finbond Board makes the strategic decision to diversify its business to microfinance by acquiring 50% of Blue Chip Finance No. 1 (formerly part of Thuthukani founded by Dr van Aardt) with 57 branches and 100% of Blue Chip Finance Western Cape (also formerly part of Thuthukani) with its 17 branches and a number of small micro lenders.

Funding

Finbond’s Dr van Aardt obtains €10 million offshore mezzanine funding from the Dutch Development Finance Corporation (FMO) and R40 million from Standard Chartered Bank to fund and expand its microfinance operations in an extremely difficult fundraising environment following the 2007 worldwide economic crisis.

Finbond expands its microfinance branch network by opening and acquiring a number of branches in the Eastern and Western Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng and North West.

Expansion

Dr van Aardt is introduced to Mr Herman Kotze of Net 1 UEPS Technologies by its JSE Sponsor Grindrod Bank. Following discussions with regards to commencing a mutually beneficial business relationship, Finbond acquires 60 Moneyline Financial Services microfinance branches from Net 1 Finance Holdings in order to gain a microfinance footprint in the KwaZulu-Natal region and Net 1 Finance acquires 84 632 525 Finbond shares to become a 22.2% shareholder in Finbond. Mr Herman Kotze and Net 1 have been a supportive major shareholder since becoming involved with Finbond.

Finbond rebrands all Blue Chip Finance, Moneyline and other microfinance branches to “Finbond Micro Finance”. Finbond expands its business to also offer customers Micro Insurance (Credit Life, Retrenchment and Funeral Insurance) through its own insurance cell captives.

Finbond ends the year ended February 2009 with a loss of R57.7 million.

Banking License Application

Finbond applies to the South African Reserve Bank to establish and register a mutual bank in terms of the Mutual Banks Act No. 124 of 1993 in order to provide clients with a full range of low-cost banking services through its existing branch infrastructure.

Additional Funding

Facing various maturing debt obligations and an extremely difficult and hostile fundraising environment, Finbond raises R40 million from the South African high yield debt capital markets in order to refinance a portion of existing maturing debt.

In addition to this, Finbond raises R20 million in equity from its two largest shareholders, Dr van Aardt (Kings Reign) and Net 1, through a rights offer. The rights offer process is finalised in February 2012, with Dr W van Aardt (Kings Reign) and Net 1 taking up 120,000,000 and 80,000,000 Finbond shares respectively. At this time, Finbond's share price was R0.07. Finbond ends the year with a loss of R20.3 million

Finbond Mutual Bank

During July 2012, Finbond receives formal consent from the then Registrar of Banks Mr Rene van Wyk in terms of section 11(1) and section 13(1) of the Mutual Banks Act to establish and register a mutual bank, namely Finbond Mutual Bank, in the Republic of South Africa.

Finbond formally starts operating as a mutual bank during September 2012 and receives its first deposit of R550,000 from 85-year-old Mr Lambert Petrus van Sittert.

Riskowitz

Mr Sean Riskowitz of the Riskowitz Value Fund based in New York meets with Finbond’s Dr van Aardt to discuss a potential investment in Finbond Group Limited.

Following the meetings, the Riskowitz Value Fund proceeds to acquire their first 6% shares in Finbond at R0.18. Mr Sean Riskowitz and the Riskowitz Value Fund have been a supportive major shareholder since becoming involved with Finbond.

Finbond ends the year ended February 2012 with a Net Profit After Tax of R13.4 million.

International Expansion

Following difficult trading conditions, a rapidly deteriorating currency and political turmoil in South Africa, Dr van Aardt and his executive team start investigating the possibility of expanding Finbond’s core short-term lending business to either the EU or North America.

Following a detailed study of the unsecured short-term lending markets in various countries in the EU and North America, Finbond makes the strategic decision to pursue opportunities in the United States of America and Canada.

Mr Carel van Heerden, Finbond Chief Operating Officer, is tasked with the responsibility of identifying suitable acquisition targets in North America. Over the next 6 months Mr van Heerden inter alia identifies American Cash Advance, Cash Back, Cash in a Flash and Cash Shop that became Finbond’s first four acquisitions in North America.

During the course of 2015 Riskowitz increases its shareholding to 15%.

Finbond Group North America

Finbond raises R1.1 billion from its three major shareholders. The Riskowitz Value Fund represented by Mr Sean Riskowitz contributes R510 million, Net 1 Finance represented by Mr Herman Kotze contributes R280 million and Kings Reign, Dr van Aardt’s investment holding company, contributes R220 million.

With the support of its three major shareholders Finbond expands its short term instalment lending operations to North America and Canada through the acquisition of 171 short-term lending branches, operating in the following states in the United States of America : Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Ontario, Michigan, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, California and Louisiana.

Finbond’s NPAT for the year ending February 2016 increases 12.6% to R57.3 million.

Profit Growth

Finbond increases its branch network to 550 branches of which 379 are in South Africa and 171 in North America.

Riskowitz increases its shareholding in Finbond to 36% with Dr van Aardt (Kings Reign) holding 24% and Net 1 Finance 26%. Finbond’s three major shareholders remain committed to Finbond’s strategic growth plans and objectives.

Finbond now employs 1 803 employees and operates in 16 states in the United States of America, Canada and South Africa.

Finbond’s NPAT for the year ending February 2017 increases 142.3% to R138.7 million.

Further Expansion

Finbond expands its branch network to 672 branches internationally, of which 415 are located in South Africa and 257 are located in North America. Total employees amount to 2 083. Finbond remains focused on its core competency which is short term unsecured loans.

Finbond’s Headline Earnings for the year ended 28 February 2018 increase by 81.2% and Finbond’s NPAT for the year ended February 2017 increases 68% to R234.2 million.

In October 2018, London based Lafferty Group awards Finbond Mutual Bank with a 4-star quality rating as a high quality bank in the Lafferty Banking 500 global benchmarking study. Finbond is the second highest ranked bank in South Africa and one of the leading banks globally, ranking 11th in the world.

US Revenue

Finbond expands its branch network to 694 branches, of which 435 are located in South Africa and 259 are located in North America.

Total employees amount to 2,153. Total assets increased to R3.30 billion and revenue increased to R2.58 billion. Cash received from customers amounted to R7.19 billion. 64% of revenue is generated in US$.

Increased Earnings

Finbond increases total assets to R4.67 billion and value of loans advanced to R5.92 billion.

Operating profit before tax increases by 78.0% to R260.0 million and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increases by 78.8% to R722.3 million.

COVID-19

Despite the significant challenges presented by the COVID-19 lockdowns, Finbond increases Cash, Cash Equivalents and Liquid Assets to R1.60 billion.

Total assets end the year at R4.37 billion and loans advanced throughout the year at R3.99 billion.

COVID-19 Continued

Finbond’s results continue to be influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of regulatory changes in Illinois in March 2021.

Recovery however continues slowly as the value of loans advanced increases by 25.9% to R5.02 billion.

Gross consumer loans and advances increase by 30.4% to R1.13 billion and total assets end the year at R4.62 billion.

Recovery

Finbond’s South African operations returns to profitability and the group makes good progress in its recovery from COVID-19 and the regulatory changes in Illinois as gross loans and advances increase by 25.6% and interest income increases by 25.4%.

Finbond ends the year in a healthy liquidity position with cash, cash equivalents and liquid assets of R1.16 billion and total assets of R4.96 billion.