Barclays Africa targets half investment bank revenue from outside South Africa

Reuters

Published Dec 01, 2014 14:55

Barclays Africa targets half investment bank revenue from outside South Africa

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Barclays Africa Group's (J:BGAJ) investment banking division expects countries outside South Africa to contribute more than half its revenue in five years' time after taking on most of its parent's operations on the continent.

Barclays Africa's corporate and investment banking (CIB) arm is now expanding businesses such as trading government bonds into nearly all of the lender's 12 operations in Africa, said CIB Chief Executive Stephen van Coller.

Countries other than South Africa currently account for about a third of CIB's revenue, but it says that is increasing.

"We've grown revenue in the rest of Africa faster than South Africa, but that is to be expected," van Coller said, referring to the low base from which those countries are growing.

Under a deal concluded last year, Britain's Barclays (L:BARC) handed over ownership of eight African businesses to its South African subsidiary in exchange for a 62.3 percent stake in the new Barclays Africa entity.

In some of those countries, the company had fairly small investment banking operations, offering just basic foreign currency and money market services.

The CIB division's net revenue - income excluding impairment losses on loans - rose 14 percent in the first half of this year to 6 billion rand (345.03 million pounds), and it expects to maintain that level of growth in the next few years.