South African’s biggest retail bank, Absa — in which British banking group Barclays is acquiring a 60% stake — boosted headline earnings by 23,3% from R4,447-billion to R5,484-billion for the year to the end of March.
This translated into headline earnings per share of 841 cents, which represents a 22,1% increase on last year’s 688,5 cents and is much better than the I-Net Bridge consensus forecast of 807 cents per share.
Fully diluted headline earnings per share reflected an 18,8% increase from 682,8 cents to 811,1 cents.
A final dividend of 200 cents per share was declared by the group, bringing the total dividend for the year to 295 cents per share — 62,1% higher than the 182 cents paid in respect of the 2004 financial year.
Absa’s dividend cover has been reduced to 2,9 times, owing to the group’s healthy capital position.
Return on average assets improved from 1,55% to 1,68% and the group delivered a return of 25,5% on average shareholders’ equity (March 2004: 24,6%).
Absa’s share price appreciated by 61,7% for the year under review, owing to a significant rerating of the South African banking sector in general and Absa in particular, coupled with the Barclays offer to acquire a majority stake in the group.
The Barclays transaction, if approved by shareholders, will accelerate Absa’s strategy of becoming the leading financial-services business in South Africa and the pre-eminent bank on the African continent, the group said.
It said buoyant retail market conditions enabled retail and commercial banking to post excellent results. Quality asset growth, increased transaction volumes and a reduction in the charge for the impairment of advances underpinned the performance of these business areas.
Absa Financial Services capitalised on the strong banking performance to cross-sell its products and, assisted by the strong equity markets, achieved excellent operating results in all of its main businesses.
After a slow start to the year, the contribution from wholesale banking improved during the second six months of the financial year — despite the demand for credit in the corporate sector remaining sluggish.
“Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank’s risk appetite for certain products and exposures has been reduced. This, together with a focus on providing customers with integrated solutions, has ensured that this area is well positioned for future growth,” Absa said.
Reported headline earnings from banking in other African countries, however, were impacted by the strong rand, but these operations continued to make progress and were performing in line with expectations, the group added.
It pointed out that the options issued to Absa’s staff share-incentive trust, the employee share ownership programme and Batho Bonke Capital (Absa’s black economic empowerment partner) caused a dilution in headline earnings per share of 3,6% to 811,1 cents per share.
As a consequence, the growth in fully diluted headline earnings per share was 18,8%, compared with the previous financial year.
Net interest income increased by 8,7% because of strong advances growth of 20,6%, offset by a decline of 13 basis points in the net interest margin.
“This decline is primarily attributable to the reduced margin earned on the group’s capital and savings and cheque deposits in the lower interest-rate environment, a slight change in the funding mix in favour of wholesale deposits and the impact of increased competition on customer lending rates.
“The low interest-rate environment continues to have a positive impact on the affordability of consumer credit as well as debt-servicing costs,” the group stated.
Household debt relative to disposable income was at approximately 57,5% during the last quarter of the financial year, up from 52,6% a year ago, but debt cost to disposable income is at its lowest level in 20 years. This, together with the maintenance of prudent credit approval criteria and further enhancements to credit management techniques, supported the continued improvement in the quality of the advances book.
As a result, the charge for the impairment of advances to average advances decreased to 0,52% (March 2004: 0,90%). Non-performing advances as a percentage of total advances decreased from 3,8% (March 2004) to 2,2% at March 31 2005.
“Non-interest income as a percentage of operating income improved marginally from 52,5% to 53%. For the year under review, the growth of 16,3% in annuity-based transaction fees, representing 65,5% of total non-interest income, was particularly pleasing. Areas contributing to this growth included increased transaction volumes, specifically in electronic banking and card processing.”
Gross trading income improved somewhat during the second half of the financial year, but was still lower than that earned in the 2004 financial year.
“A reduced risk appetite for proprietary trading and non-directional markets resulted in lower earnings.”
Insurance-related income benefited from the increased volumes generated by the retail banking business units, new products, product bundling and improved underwriting loss ratios. The listed equities investment portfolio held by Financial Services returned R303-million, compared with an appreciation of R317-million for the previous financial year.
The cost-to-income ratio, at 56,8%, edged closer to the group’s objective of lowering this ratio to the mid-fifties. This was achieved despite substantial investments in the expansion of the group’s delivery footprint and compliance initiatives of a regulatory nature. Operating expenditure increased by 9,3%, compared with top-line income growth of 9,8%.
Looking ahead, Absa said demand for credit growth is expected to remain buoyant for the near term.
“Inflation and interest rates are expected to remain stable, although the possibility of a further downward adjustment in interest rates cannot be ruled out. In view of the low interest-rate environment, interest-rate margins are likely to contract further over the next year, but continued good advances growth — albeit at a slower pace — and sound credit quality should counter any negative impact on the group’s net interest margins,” it said.
“The group is well positioned to sustain its good performances of the past three years. The Barclays transaction, if approved by shareholders, will add impetus to this performance,” it added.
The group said that a successful conclusion to the Barclays transaction could result in Absa’s year-end changing from March to December, resulting in a nine-month financial reporting period for the period ending December 31 this year. — I-Net Bridge