Barclays Africa earnings up 7%

Tue, 01 Aug 2017 09:30:41 +0000

By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

BARCLAYS Africa Group Limited has registered a 7 percent increase in its headline earnings, an indication that the institution is well positioned to meet the challenges in all its markets across the continent, says its chief executive, Maria Ramos.
Ms. Ramos said the group had so far demonstrated its ability to conduct businesses effectively in all its markets in the continent.
She said this could be seen from the normalised headline earnings which increased by seven per cent to R7.8 billion.
“As Barclays Africa, we are well positioned to meet the challenges in all its markets across the continent, despite our Group revenue declining by one per cent to R36 billion due to a deteriorating economic environment in South Africa, which in turn caused pre-provision profit to decline six per cent,” she said.
Ms. Ramos explained that the headline increase was driven by strong earnings growth in the Rest of Africa, and positive earnings growth in South Africa, featuring strong growth in corporate banking.
She was speaking at a conference call press briefing lwhen announcing the banks mid-year financial results.
She emphasised that Barclays Africa would continue its significant investment in technology to build a more efficient and lower-cost franchise.
“We are presenting a set of results that demonstrate the real value of the 2013 acquisition of the Barclays businesses in Africa.
“Both geographically, as well as by customer segment, they are proving their worth in yielding a strong performance for the first half, even as our biggest market, South Africa, has suffered the impact of an economic downturn,” she said.
Ms. Ramos said the group continued to have a sound financial position with balance sheet assets of R1.1 trillion and strong capital adequacy and liquidity reserve positions adding that the successful separation from Barclays PLC would be an overarching priority for Barclays Africa over the next three years.
“Our results today are testament to the resilience of our business and the momentum we are creating. We expect the economic environment to remain challenging but we believe the long-term opportunities remain attractive,” Ramos said.
Ms. Ramos said this was an exciting time for the bank and its ambition remained the same with a focus of building a pan-African financial services business with the potential to unlock the real opportunities and competitive advantages.