Barclays still open for business in Africa
Business
Barclays Bank Botswana is still open for business and is committed to investing in Botswana, Barclays Botswana Managing Director Rienette van der Merwe said this week.
This follows the UK banking group Barclays Group’s intention to sell its 62.3% stake in Barclays Africa Group. Barclays is scaling back its presence in Africa, by selling down its 62.3 per cent stake in Barclays Africa Group, its Johannesburg-listed subsidiary, over two to three years to a level that allows it to be deconsolidated from the group.
Barclays Bank Plc currently owns 62.3% of Barclays Africa Group Limited (BAGL) which controls banks in 10 African countries including Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Addressing the media, van der Merwe said “This announcement will not affect you, our customers, in any way and we at Barclays Bank Botswana will continue to serve you as we have done for over 65 years.”
Barclays is being forced to sell assets, such as its "Barclays set to exit African business" African subsidiary, because of punitive fines by authorities. Barclays Group said Absa is a well-diversified business and a high quality franchise.
The Chief Executive Director of the Barclays group, Jes Staley said “however the stake in BAGL presents specific challenges to Barclays as owners, such as the level of capital held in respect of BAGL, the international reach of the UK Bank Levy, the GSIB buffer, and MREL/TLAC and other regulatory requirements.”
“When conduct charges consume our profits, as they have for the past three years, we have no choice but to meet them by shrinking our franchise selling or closing businesses which reduces our capacity to support the real economy.”
The bank carries 100% responsibility with only 62.3% benefits, it said at its results presentation. Barclays said the sell-down will lead to further simplification of the group, resulting in cost reductions.
Barclays has seen its share price fall over 30 percent over the last two years amid a tumultuous period of changing leadership and restructuring.
Potential investors would need to raise nearly $4bn to buy Barclays. The intended sale is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.
The announcement came as the UK bank announced net losses more than doubled last year.
Barclays Group Africa on Tuesday reported a 17% return on equity for 2015 in its stand alone local currency results versus the 8.7% return reported for Africa Banking in Barclays’ results, the group said.
Staley said in his year-end review on Tuesday Africa Banking performed well despite currency headwinds. “Through Barclays Africa, we have excellent franchises in Africa, with a great management team,” said Staley.
Barclays Group Africa's share price dropped 3.20% to R131.65 shortly after the announcement.
BARCLAYS AFRICA REPORTS HEADLINE EARNINGS GROWTH OF 10%
Meanwhile Barclays Africa Group Limited this week announced a 10% increase in headline earnings for the year ended 31 December 2015, delivering a solid performance underpinned by a three-year strategy implemented in 2014.
Maria Ramos, Chief Executive of Barclays Africa Group Limited says: “We delivered solid results, demonstrating that our strategy is working. Our ambition to be Africa’s leading bank remains unchanged. We are a strong, well-capitalised and independently funded business that is uniquely positioned to achieve our goals across the continent.”
Group headline earnings increased to R14.3 billion on the back of increased income while costs remained well managed.
Costs increased by only 5%, even as the group continued to make appropriate investments in our infrastructure to deliver material improvements to our service.
Return on equity improved to 17%, the highest level since 2008 and Barclays Africa is now top three by revenue in four of our five largest markets; that is, South Africa, Botswana, Ghana and Zambia. We are gaining revenue traction in key focus areas across geographies and businesses and we have seen strong loan growth in the right areas.
Retail and Business Banking (RBB), the group’s largest business unit, continued its turnaround and had another strong year with headline earnings growing 14%, playing a key role in driving overall Barclays Africa growth. RBB recorded solid revenue growth and managed costs well. The continued improvement in the quality of the home loans book and a strong collections performance in personal loans resulted in lower credit impairment. RBB’s non-interest income rose 7%.
“We added 855,000 new-to-bank customers in 2015 – an achievement that I am particularly pleased with,” says Ms Ramos. “Our RBB unit continues to make good progress in its turnaround and we have had one of our strongest revenue months on record in January 2016,” Ms Ramos says.
Improvements in the branch network and other channels, supported by investments in mobile and other technologies supported RBB’s progress.
In Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB), headline earnings increased 6% to R3.9 billion. The group’s pan-African strategy is working, with CIB’s business outside of South Africa increasing to now account for 37% of overall earnings, demonstrating that clients are seeing the benefit of the group’s integrated regional presence.
Wealth, Investment Management and Insurance (WIMI) delivered strong growth in headline earnings, increasing 11%. The WIMI offering was expanded into East Africa, with the launch of Barclays Life Assurance Kenya and the acquisition of a controlling stake in First Assurance, which also gives the group scale and presence in Tanzania.
While the commodity downturn and reduced economic growth weakened general sentiment towards the continent, Barclays Africa’s operations in the rest of Africa performed well and enhanced group growth. This shows that creating the Barclays Africa group in 2013 is working.
Revenue from operations outside of South Africa increased to 14% while headline earnings grew 17%. Operations outside of South Africa accounted for just over a fifth of revenue during 2015 and earnings growth in this region should continue to exceed those of South Africa. There is a clear path to increasing return on equity from those operations.
While the focus of the numbers we released today is on financial performance, this is only one component of our success as a business.
Barclays Africa has adopted a Shared Growth approach which for us, means generating a positive impact on society while delivering shareholder value.
Business
Stargems Group establishes Training Center in BW
Internationally-acclaimed diamond manufacturing company StarGems Group has established the Stargems Diamond Training Center which will be providing specialized training in diamond manufacturing and evaluation.
The Stargems Diamond Training Institute is located at the Stargems Group Botswana Unit in Gaborone.
“In accordance with the National Human Resource Development Strategy (NHRDS) which holds the principle that through education and skills development as well as the strategic alignment between national ambitions and individual capabilities, Botswana will become a prosperous, productive and innovative nation due to the quality and efficacy of its citizenry. The Training Centre will provide a range of modules in theory and in practice; from rough diamond evaluation to diamond grading and polishing for Batswana, at no cost for eight weeks. The internationally- recognized certificate offered in partnership with Harry Oppenheimer Diamond Training School presents invaluable opportunities for Batswana to access in the diamond industry locally and internationally. The initiative is an extension of our Corporate Social Investment to the community in which we operate,” said Vishal Shah, Stargems Group Managing Director, during the launch of the Stargems Diamond Training Center.
In order to participate in this rare opportunity, interested candidates are invited to submit a police clearance certificate and a BGCSE certificate only to the Stargems offices. Students who excel in these programs will have the chance to be onboarded by the Stargems Group. This serves as motivation for them to go through this training with a high level of seriousness.
“Community empowerment is one of our CSR principles. We believe that businesses can only thrive when their communities are well taken of. We are hoping that our presence will be impactful to various communities and economies. In the six countries that we are operating in, we have contributed through dedicating 10% of our revenues during COVID-19 to facilitate education, donating to hospitals and also to NGOs committed to supporting women and children living with HIV. One key issue that we are targeting in Botswana is the rate of unemployment amongst the youth. We are looking forward to working closely with the government and other relevant authorities to curb unemployment,” said Shah.
Currently, Stargems Group has employed 117 Batswana and they are looking forward to growing the numbers to 500 as the company grows. Majority of the employees will be graduates from the Stargems Diamond Training Center. This initiation has been received with open arms by the general public and stakeholders. During the launch, the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Honorable Lefoko Moagi, stated that the ministry fully endorses Stargems Diamond Training and will work closely with the Group to support and grow the initiative.
“As a ministry, we see this as an game changer that is aligned with one of the United Nations’ Six Priority Sustainable Development Goals, which is to Advance Opportunity and Impact for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). What Stargems Group is launching today will have a huge impact on the creation of employment in Botswana. An economy’s productivity rises as the number of educated workers increases as its skilled workmanship increases. It is not a secret that low skills perpetuate poverty and widen the inequality gap, therefore the development of skills has the potential to contribute significantly to structural transformation and economic growth by enhancing employability and helping the country become more competitive. We are grateful to see the emergence of industry players such as Stargems Group who have strived to create such opportunities that mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19 on the economy,” said the Minister of Minerals and Energy.
Business
Food import bill slightly declines
The latest figures released by Statistics Botswana this week shows that food import bill for Botswana slightly declined from around P1.1 billion in November 2022 to around P981 million in December during the same year.
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Business
Moody’s Reaffirms African Trade Insurance’s A3 Rating & Revises Outlook to Positive
Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) has affirmed the A3 insurance financial strength rating (IFSR) of the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) for the fifth consecutive year and changed the outlook from stable to positive.
Moody’s noted that the change in outlook to positive reflects the strong growth in ATI’s membership base – that has resulted in improved portfolio diversification, strengthened capital adequacy, and the good profitability despite the challenging operating environment. In addition, ATI benefits from its preferred creditor status (PCS) amongst sovereign member states which protects it from the risk of default by member sovereigns through securing recoveries against claims paid on guarantees.
The strong membership and equity growth are some of the key considerations for the consistent reinstatement of ATI’s A/Stable rating by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s rating, over the years. Also supporting the rating affirmation are; consistent improvement in financial performance, commitment of its shareholders who continue to uphold the preferred creditor status, its high quality and conservative investment portfolio as well as strong relationships with a number of global reinsurers that provide significant risk-bearing capacity.
With the change in outlook to “positive”, ATI is now better placed to provide enhanced support to its member countries, attract additional shareholding and grow its portfolio. The positive outlook is an indication that if ATI continues to demonstrate its strong underwriting performance and ability to recover claims under the preferred creditor arrangements, among other factors, an upward pressure towards an upgrade may be generated. The Moody’s press release can be accessed from here
Commenting on the rating, Africa Trade Insurance Chief Executive Officer Manuel Moses said: “This positive revision is in line with our 2023 – 2027 strategic objectives in which we set to improve our rating outlook to positive in the first year, and achieve an upgrade of at least “AA”/Stable rating by both Moody’s and S&P within this Strategic Plan period. We aim to achieve this by doubling our exposures and increasing our capital to more than USD1 billion.”
ATI’s mandate is to provide trade-credit and political risk insurance, as well as other risk mitigation products to its member countries and related public and private sector actors. These insurance products not only directly encourage and facilitate foreign direct investment as well as local private sector investment in our member countries, but also contribute to intra- and extra-African trade.
About The African Trade Insurance Agency
ATI was founded in 2001 by African States to cover trade and investment risks of companies doing business in Africa. ATI predominantly provides Political Risk, Credit Insurance and, Surety Insurance. Since inception, ATI has supported US$78 billion worth of investments and trade into Africa. For over a decade, ATI has maintained an ‘A/Stable’ rating for Financial Strength and Counterparty Credit by Standard & Poor’s, and in 2019, ATI obtained an A3/Stable rating from Moody’s, which has now been revised to A3/Positive.