Nedbank Group reports strong earnings
MBABANE – The Nedbank Group has reported a 27 per cent jump in headline earnings to E6.7 billion for the six months to end of June.
The jump was mostly driven by strong revenue growth of 11 per cent to E30.5 billion, supported by a growing client base. Its credit loss ratio remained flat at 85 basis points from the previous year. The bank declared an interim dividend of 783 cents, up 81 per cent year-on-year and back above the 2019 pre-pandemic half-year dividend.
Nedbank’s return on equity increased to 13.6 per cent, from 11.7 per cent in June 2021.
Nedbank grew its retail main-banked clients – people who deposit their salaries with it – by two per cent to E3.04 million. The bank has been taking market share from the other big three fbanks or some time now.
Share
According to market share data, Nedbank’s main-banked client market share increased from around 10 per cent in 2015 to 12.4 per cent by 2021. After the latest gain, that number will likely be higher when Consulta reports 2022 figures.
Dr Terence Sibiya, the Group Managing Executive, Nedbank Africa Regions, in a statement said the banking group’s financial performance in the first half of 2022 reflected “an excellent performance across all key metrics in a complex and difficult external environment.” “During the past six months, Nedbank continued to make good progress on its strategic value drivers of growth, productivity, risk and capital management,” he said.
He said the bank was slowly trying to get its staff back into its offices.
Nedbank’s share price rose by more than three per cent in opening trading on Monday, and has now gained 24 per cent over the past year.
Sibiya, in an interview with this publication yesterday, said Nedbank Eswatini contributed to the growth of the group’s performance, due to the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions and other challenges affecting the socio-economic environment.
Pleased
“I am pleased that the NAR business delivered a good set of results driven by a great performance from our associated investment in ETI and an improved performance from the SADC operations,” says Dr Terence.
The Group’s Managing Executive, Nedbank Africa Regions, added that during the past six months. the Nedbank Group continued to make good progress on its strategic value drivers of growth, productivity, risk and capital management. He said growth trends across net interest income (NII) (+9 per cent), non-interest revenue (NIR) (+13 per cent) and gross advances (+7 per cent) improved from the COVID-19 pandemic lows, supported by main-banked client gains across business clusters and strong growth in digital activity.