South African lender Nedbank’s annual profit rises on upbeat revenue

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

South African lender Nedbank’s annual profit rises on upbeat revenue

8:19 CAT | 05 Mar 2024

FILE - Customers look on outside Nedbank at the Mall of the South in Johannesburg, South Africa, March 17, 2019. [File photo> Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko]

South Africa’s Nedbank Group NEDJ.J, one of the top five lenders in the country, recorded an 11% rise in its annual profit on Tuesday, supported by strong revenue and associate income growth.

For the year ended Dec. 31, the bank’s headline earnings, a profit measure, grew to 15.7 billion rand ($823.67 million) from 14.1 billion rand a year earlier.

The top five private South African banks – among the continent’s biggest – are generally considered well-capitalised, conservative in lending and help drive an otherwise ailing economy.

But inflationary pressures, high interest rates, regular power blackouts and logistical bottlenecks are taking a toll on the banks’ most sensitive retail and small business customers, leading to defaults.

Nedbank’s credit loss ratio – a measure of bad loans as a percentage of total loans – was at 109 basis points (bps), up from 89 bps posted a year earlier and beyond its target range of 80 bps to 100 bps. But the ratio improved from the first half when it was 121 bps.

The lender’s revenue grew by 11% to 69.1 billion rand.

Source: Reuters