According to a CNBC Africa report, Nedbank is attributing the increase to its new money send product, Send-iMali and the roll-out of 144 intelligent depositor devices as well as establishing 52 additional branches in the ‘branches of the future’ format during the period.
The Nedbank Group saw a 17.5 per cent rise in headline earnings per share (HEPS) from 3.9 billion rand in June 2013 to 4.59 billion rand this year for the six months ended 30 June 2014.
“In a deteriorating economic environment the outcomes arising from our strategic choices enabled Nedbank to produce strong growth in diluted headline earnings per share for the six months to June,” said Mike Brown, chief executive officer of the Nedbank Group Limited 0.95%, in a statement.
“This performance was underpinned by net interest income (NII) growth of 9.3 per cent and our focus on selective asset origination and excellent risk management enabled the credit loss ratio to improve from a high base in the prior period to 83 basis points.”
CNBC Africa also reports that the group employed 259 additional staff in the same period and invested 190 million rand in training with more than 2400 employees participating in learning academy programmes and 785 staff involved in its Leading for Deep Green programme.
The bank gave out 86.1 billion rand in new loans was advanced and assets under management grew by 25.3 per cent to 209.5 billion rand.
“We remain focused on our vision to be Africa’s most admired bank through acquiring an initial 36.4 per cent stake (with a pathway to control) of Banco Unico in Mozambique, and we have until 25 November to make a decision on our rights to acquire up to 20 per cent in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI),” said the company in a statement.