Banking group Nedbank managed to grow its headline earnings for the year to end-December despite a nearly threefold increase in the losses contributed by its rest of Africa division. The loss contributed by its rest of Africa division grew to R810m from R287m in 2016. But Nedbank’s rest of Africa division did manage to produce impressive income growth of 31% to R2.5bn, taking its contribution to 5% of the group’s total income of R51.7bn. The bulk of Nedbank’s rest of Africa division consists of its investment in struggling Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI). "The total effect of ETI on the group’s headline earnings was a loss of R975m, including the R321m impact of funding costs," the bank said in its results statement. In contrast to the rest of Africa division, Nedbank’s corporate and investment banking (CIB) produced higher profit on lower income. Following a 2.5% decline in income to R14.4bn, the CIB division contributed only 28% of the group’s total income, but it contrib...

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