African Banking |

Barclays Sells Zimbabwe Bank to Malawi’s First Merchant

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Barclays has announced the sale of its Zimbabwe bank to Malawi-listed First Merchant Bank on Friday as the British lender continues its exit from Africa. In March Barclays announced it was in talks on the sale of its stake in Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe as part of a broader exit from Africa to refocus on the United States and Britain. Barclays said the deal would remove 292 million pounds ($375.69 million)…

Mauritian Banks Seen as Haven as Politics And Oil Roil Peers

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PORT LOUIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mauritian banks are becoming beacons of growth and stability in sub-Saharan Africa. Unscathed by the vagaries of the oil price and unhindered by the political battles that have roiled some of their continental peers, the Indian Ocean island’s lenders have been bolstered by an economy growing faster than many of the mainland countries. The central bank expects the Mauritian economy to expand as much as 4 percent this year, compared with…

Kenyan Central Bank Says Lenders Face New Era of Smaller Profits

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan lenders must adjust their business models to adapt to a new era of lower profits as interest-rate caps curb investor returns, Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge said. Return on equity in the Kenyan banking industry declined to 13.6 percent in March from 18.2 percent in June, Njoroge told reporters Tuesday in the capital, Nairobi. For the country’s biggest lenders, the drop was more severe, slumping to 23 percent…

Egypt’s CIB completes $40 mln sale of investment banking unit

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CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Egypt’s largest listed bank CIB said on Monday it had finalised the sale of a near 75 percent stake in its investment banking arm to a consortium of local and foreign investors in a deal worth 710.2 million Egyptian pounds ($39.5 million). Commercial International Bank (CIB) signed an agreement in December to sell the majority of its shares in CI Capital to a group of Egyptian and Gulf investors. It…

Pan-African Banking Model: Balancing Risk and Reward

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Africa-originated banks are increasingly becoming dominated players across the financial landscape in Africa. This is happening at a time when some western-based banks are scaling back their activities in the region. For the most part, these pan-African banks originate from large African economies (based on income) such as Nigeria (United Bank of Africa), South Africa (Standard Bank), Morocco (Attijariwafa Bank) but also small economies such as Togo where Ecobank…

Nigeria’s Bad Loans Soar as Banks Battle Slumping Economy

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bad loans in Nigeria’s banking system soared to more than double the limit set by the regulator as the industry struggles with an economic downturn. The ratio of non-performing loans to total credit rose to 11.7 percent at the end of June from 5.3 percent at the end of 2015, the Abuja-based Central Bank of Nigeria, which requires banks to keep the measure below 5 percent, said in a report…

Nigeria |FCMB Forecasts Weaker Second Half as Nigerian Economy Shrinks

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LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa: FCMB Group Plc, a Nigerian lender, said earnings will come under pressure in the second half as it sets aside more money for loan losses to cope with a Nigerian economy headed toward a recession. Profit in the six months through December will probably be weaker than the first half “in view of operating environment challenges and our decision to step up impairment charges,’’ the Lagos-based lender said in…

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