{"id":13730,"date":"2012-08-21T15:04:55","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T13:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/update-1-barclays-in-talks-to-combine-african-operations\/"},"modified":"2012-08-21T15:04:55","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T13:04:55","slug":"update-1-barclays-in-talks-to-combine-african-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-barclays-in-talks-to-combine-african-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-Barclays in talks to combine African operations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Says combination will boost growth opportunities<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Analyst forecasts Africa loan book to grow by 9 pct\/year<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Barclays shares up 2.5 percent<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) &#8211; Barclays is in talks<br \/>\nabout combining its African operations with that of<br \/>\nmajority-owned subsidiary Absa Group in a move aimed at<br \/>\naccelerating expansion on the continent, the British bank said<br \/>\non Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Barclays and Absa, which is South Africa&#8217;s third-largest<br \/>\nbank and its biggest retail lender, had already agreed to<br \/>\ncombine strategies in Africa and had set up a joint team of<br \/>\nexecutives to lead expansion.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This proposed combination of the businesses will mirror the<br \/>\nmanagerial and operational structure we have already put in<br \/>\nplace. It will provide a platform for further growth,&#8221; said<br \/>\nMaria Ramos, chief executive of Absa Group and Barclays Africa.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Barclays said combining the businesses would help increase<br \/>\ngrowth opportunities in Africa where Absa has been slow to<br \/>\ncapitalise on Barclays&#8217; wide presence on the continent, trailing<br \/>\n fast-moving rival Standard Bank.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Absa, in which Barclays holds a 56 percent stake, issued a<br \/>\nprofit warning in June, sending its shares into a tailspin and<br \/>\nigniting fears that its recent recovery was losing steam.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Africa business is an important long-term growth driver<br \/>\nfor the business,&#8221; said Oriel Securities analyst Mike Trippitt<br \/>\nwho estimates Barclays&#8217; African loan book will grow by an<br \/>\naverage 9 percent per annum between 2011 and 2015 compared with<br \/>\n5 percent for the group.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Shares in Barclays were up 2.5 percent to 195.7 pence at<br \/>\n0800 GMT, compared with a 1.1 percent rise in Europe&#8217;s bank<br \/>\nindex.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The proposal would see Barclays combining its interests in<br \/>\nBotswana, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and the Indian<br \/>\nOcean with Absa, and remaining as the majority shareholder of<br \/>\nthe combined African operations.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Says combination will boost growth opportunities * Analyst forecasts Africa loan book to grow by 9 pct\/year * Barclays shares up 2.5 percent LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) &#8211; Barclays is in talks about combining its African operations with that of majority-owned subsidiary Absa Group in a move aimed at accelerating expansion on the continent, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}