* FY Headline EPS 226.9 cents vs 179.4 cents
* Net interest income R21.9 bln vs R17.4 bln
* Shares up 31 pct this year
(Adds CEO and analyst quotes, details)
By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 11 (Reuters) – FirstRand’s push
to sell high interest loans to lower income customers fuelled a
26 percent rise in annual profit, although South Africa’s No.2
bank said it was setting aside more money to cover bad loans as
the economy deteriorates.
South African banks – dominated by heavyweights Standard
Bank, FirstRand, Absa Group and Nedbank
– are ramping up high margin loans to offset weak
demand for credit elsewhere.
“They are gaining market share from their peers, that is
pretty positive, their retail business is doing phenomenally
well,” said Faizal Moolla, an analyst at Avior Research, who has
an “outperform” rating on FirstRand.
“They have been growing their unsecured lending pretty
aggressively and that would have contributed to the increase in
the impairment ratio, but overall a very good performance.”
South Africa’s second-largest bank has been courting retail
customers from rivals through an aggressive media campaign. It
added 1.3 million new accounts in the year to end-June.
Continued…
