WSJ: Credit impairments for the half-year were 58% higher at ZAR7.12 billion, which resulted in a credit loss ratio of 1.84% against 1.31% a year earlier.
SHOOT: The banking business is going to contract even further in the future as autos and property markets dry up. Standard Bank didn't do to badly in comparison to its nearest competitor.
WSJ: Absa Group Ltd. (ASA.JO), South Africa's biggest retail lender, earlier this month said it expects to remain under pressure for the rest of the year due to rising arrears and non-performing loans. The bank, majority owned by the U.K.'s Barclays PLC (BCS), posted a 39% drop in its first-half net profit after impairments rose and business volumes fell.
JOHANNESBURG (Dow Jones)--Standard Bank Group Ltd. (SBK.JO), Africa's largest lender by assets, Thursday said it expects a decline in earnings this year after its first-half profit was hit by rising impairments amid the global economic recession.
The Johannesburg-based company said it wouldn't provide specific guidance for the year, but that current trends suggest so-called normalized earnings will be lower than in 2008.
Standard Bank said its first-half earnings fell 24% to 5.41 billion rand ($674.3 million), excluding one-time items and adjusting for shares used to fund ownership by black South Africans and stock held for policyholders of its insurance unit Liberty Holdings Ltd. (LBH.JO). Liberty was pushed to a loss of ZAR1.21 billion in part by a rise in lapses of insurance policies.
Net profit was down 31% at ZAR5.11 billion, or 343.5 cents a share, from ZAR7.4 billion, or 521.2 cents, a year earlier.
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