* Headline EPS 1,350 cents, vs 1,115.7 cents
* Year dividend 684 cents, vs 600.5 cents consensus
By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Absa Group,
the South African bank majority owned by British lender Barclays
, met expectations with a 21 percent rise in full-year
profit, after a sharp drop in bad debts helped it overcome weak
demand for credit.
Like rivals in Africa’s top economy, Absa has been hit by
slack demand for loans, as companies wait for a recovery. It has
responded by trying to rein in costs and boost fees.
Absa, the first of South Africa’s top four banks to report
earnings this season, said on Friday bad debt charges fell 15
percent, while its loan book shrank 1 percent.
Bigger rival Standard Bank has been aggressively
courting new customers in South Africa. Africa’s biggest bank
has said its South African business saw a 50 percent jump in
personal and business loans in 2011.
Avior Research analyst Faizal Moolla said Absa’s loan book
was a disappointment. “They are a bank and they need to
basically take on additional risk. If they do not start growing
their advances, they are going to lose market share.”
Absa deputy chief executive Louis von Zeuner told reporters:
“A tight credit policy obviously took us out of the relationship
with key dealers and manufacturers and we are slowly but surely
getting our way back in there.
Continued…
