African Bank posted R335m in operating profit for its 2016 financial year, pleasantly surprising shareholders and other affected parties who would have been expecting millions of rand in losses forecast by the curator of its predecessor bank, which had failed in 2014. The bank, which was relaunched in April, released its maiden results on Tuesday. "It was much better than planned, which is great," said CEO Brian Riley. "We got involved with the buyback plan, we saved on interest … the cost of financing reduced." Tom Winterboer, who was appointed curator of the former African Bank after it hit a liquidity crisis in 2014, said earlier in 2016 in a memorandum to investors who wished to swap their debt in the old African Bank for bonds in the new bank that the new bank was expected to make an operating loss of R280m in its first year. The bank has bought back bonds — mainly listed on foreign markets — worth R11.7bn as part of its liability management plan, saving R2.3bn in interest char...
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