Absa Group reported on Monday a slight 1% increase in normalized headline earnings per share (Heps) despite sales exceeding R100 billion for the first time in its full year to end December 2023 I stayed there.
The banking group said it achieved “strong full-year revenue growth of 8% to R104.5 billion”, but this was “offset by higher credit impairments, particularly in South Africa, Absa's largest market in terms of revenue”. said.
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Absa, which is based in 16 countries, primarily in Africa, says of its 'African region': [excluding SA] It reported very strong growth, much faster than South Africa. ”
Despite underperforming some of its peers, the group said it had delivered a “resilient set of results for 2023”.
Absa added: [the results] Particularly in South Africa, continued power supply disruptions, supply chain logistics issues and continued inflation associated with a high interest rate environment weigh on growth prospects for both customers and clients, which are weaker than expected. It was a business environment within a business environment. ”
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“In this context, growth before provisions of 6% reflects continued momentum in the business, with normalized headline profit of 1%, although offset by higher credit impairments, particularly in South Africa. It has increased…” Absa pointed out.
The company noted that the normalized values reflected in the results “remove the impact of the separation from Barclays”.
Other notable financial indicators:
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Cost-to-income ratio increased from 51% to 52.1% |
Impairment losses increased by 13% to R15.5 billion |
Return on equity decreased from 16.4% to 15.3%. |
Group CET 1 ratio drops to 12.5% (from 12.8%) |
Pre-provision profit increased by 6% to R50.1 billion |
Dividends per share increased by 5% to R13.70 per share. |
Absa reported that the group's customer base grew by 4% to 12.2 million in 2023 from 11.7 million the previous year.
But just over a third of its customer base (3.8 million people) are “digitally active customers,” according to Sens.
Absa Group CEO Allie Rautenbach said on Monday: “Despite the challenging climate, Absa remains resilient and our underlying franchise is strong and growing.” .
“We are seeing the benefits of the strategic choices we made in 2018, as evidenced by the diversification of our business, expansion of our customer franchise, and engaged employees,” he added.
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