Focus on Absa's new identity
CEO says she hopes Barclays Africa will be considered a modern, agile bank that harnesses artificial intelligence
To give Barclays Africa some credit, it has been the first bank to release its interim results to June. It did so less than a month after the June half year. Nedbank needs a few more days, but the accounting boffins at Standard Bank need almost three more weeks to put out the results. And FirstRand, for all its boasting about superior technology, needs a further month after that. Perhaps they need a few new calculators.
Barclays Africa must have been tempted to delay these results, however. They can’t be called disappointing, as market expectations are low. The dividend yield is a generous 7.2%, so you are paid more as a shareholder than you would be as a client. Total income was down 1% to R36bn, though it would have been up 2% on a constant currency basis. A strong rand led to a 6% fall in the income from the rest of Africa. Finance director Jason Quinn says the introduction of caps on consumer finance interest rates in Kenya dampened loan growth, as did similar, though less extreme, caps in SA.
A lowlight was a 9% fall in the headline earnings of the core SA retail and business banking to R4.2bn. At least this was offset by a 76% increase in SA corporate and investment banking (CIB) profit to R1.76bn, the main driver being an 81% drop in impairments. But Quinn points out that it is no one-off, as CIB has experienced double-digit earnings growth every year for the past five years. There were no major impairments comparable to the Edcon book losses in previous years.Ramos hopes that Barclays Africa will be considered a modern, agile bank that harnesses artificial intelligence. It has already launched Chat banking. She promises further developments on Facebook Messenger and aims to be first through the gates with Blockchain. And, more prosaically, Quinn says the membership of the Absa rewards programme has increased by 14%. All of which is code for "we are ready for the arrival of Discovery Bank". Let’s see. Ramos says the separation with Barclays is a dream come true, as she...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.