Burkinabe banking tycoon Idrissa Nassa’s Coris Bank Int’l loses $19.3 million in 36 days

Burkina Faso-based banking group Coris Bank International (CBI) has seen its market capitalization fall by CFA11.2 billion ($19.34 million) in the past 36 days as its shares suffered a single-digit decline.

The multimillion-dollar value loss can be linked to investor profit-taking actions and portfolio-rotation activities, as investors trimmed down their positions in the group after the stock price surged to a record high of CFA9,500 ($16.408) on Oct. 26.

A financial services group founded by Burkinabe banking tycoon Idrissa Nassa, CBI is a leading banking group in the country, with active operations across Francophone Africa.

The group maintains active operations at home and abroad through subsidiaries in Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Togo, Senegal, Benin and Niger, with nearly 1,500 employees with pan-African ambitions.

Since Nassa founded CBI nearly 13 years ago, it has grown its deposits and assets to CFA1.012 trillion ($1.74 billion) and CFA1.57 trillion ($3.5 billion), respectively, as of Dec. 30, 2020.

As of press time, Dec. 1, shares in the Burkina Faso-based banking group were trading at CFA9,150 ($15.804) on Bourse Regionale des Valeurs Mobilieres, a regional stock exchange for Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

Since Oct. 26, shares in CBI have fallen from CFA9,500 ($16.408) to CFA9,150 ($15.804) as of the time of writing.

As a result of the price decline, CBI’s market capitalization has dropped from CFA304 billion ($525.07 million) to CFA292.8 billion ($505.72 million), accruing total losses of CFA11.2 billion ($19.34 million) for the Nassa-led banking group.

Despite the decline in its market capitalization, the bank’s valuation has been up by more than CFA33.5 billion($58 million) since the year began.

In the first nine months of 2021, the bank’s net income increased from CFA24.76 billion ($43.2 million) in 2020 to CFA34.74 billion ($60.5 million) in 2021.

The increase in earnings was spurred by the growth in net-interest income from CFA50.31 billion ($86.4 million) a year ago to CFA64.69 billion ($112.3 million).