Barclays' full-year net profit drops to Sh6.93bn amid rebrand plan

The tier one lender closed the year with a loan book of Sh168.4 billion. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By MUGAMBI MUTEGI

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Summary

• Barclays is the first Kenyan bank to announce its full-year results.
• Its interest income, including loans to customers and government securities, dip 3.4 per cent to Sh27.2 billion.
• BBK’s parent company, Barclays Africa Group, plans to rename all its operations to Absa Group Limited.

Barclays Bank of Kenya (BBK) has recorded Sh6.93 billion after-tax profits for last year, representing a 6.4 per cent drop in year-on-year profitability that resulted from lower income.

Barclays, the first Kenyan bank to announce its full-year results, saw its interest income - including loans to customers and government securities - dip 3.4 per cent to Sh27.2 billion.

Non-interest income, which comprises of fees and commissions, dividend income and foreign exchange income, also dropped by Sh892 million to close the financial year at Sh8.5 billion.

The tier one lender closed the year with a loan book of Sh168.4 billion (similar to the previous year) while customer deposits increased 4.4 per cent to Sh186 billion.

The lender’s gross non-performing loans increased 10 per cent to Sh12.6 billion but its loan loss provision, booked as an expense in the income statement, dropped 20.7 per cent to Sh3.1 billion.

“The directors note that an interim dividend of 20 cents per ordinary share was paid on October 13, 2017,” the lender said in a statement announcing their full-year results.

“…the directors have resolved to recommend to members at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting a final dividend for the year of 80 cents per ordinary share of the Company to be paid on or about May 25, 2018 to shareholders.”

Name change

BBK’s full-year results release coincided with an announcement by its parent company Barclays Africa Group that, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, all its operations will change their name to Absa Group Limited.

This name change comes two years after UK-based Barclays Plc announced that it would be selling most of its 62 per cent stake in the Johannesburg-based Barclays Africa Group over two to three years.

READ: Barclays staff to get shares in parent firm

ALSO READ: Barclays Plc slashes 33.7 per cent stake in Africa unit

Barclays Africa Group’s chief executive, Maria Ramos, said the new corporate identity ties with its refocused strategy through which it targets to double its banking revenues in the continent to 12 per cent. Barclays Africa Group’s chief executive Maria Ramos. FILE PHOTO

New corporate identity

The name change, which will also see BBK adopt a new corporate identity, is subject to shareholder approval during an annual general meeting in May as well as accent from regulators.

“Our overriding goal is to become a banking group of which Africa can be proud, a forward-looking African business that recognises our African heritage, rooted in Africa, with global reach...We have a clear and undiluted ambition to double our market share of African banking revenues. It is a bold plan for growth. Growth has to be an essential part of our DNA, the driver behind our every action,” she said in a statement Thursday.