Ecobank Transnational’s biggest shareholder plans to sell its stake in the pan-African lender as South Africa’s fourth-biggest bank by assets narrows its focus on the continent.
Nedbank will sell its 21.2% holding in Togo-based Ecobank, marking the end of a 17-year strategic alliance that enabled the Johannesburg-based lender to expand its footprint beyond southern Africa.
“The board has approved a formal plan to dispose of the investment, and we are currently engaging interested parties,” the lender said in an emailed statement. “This change represents a reset of our strategy on the rest of the continent with a clear focus on the Southern African Development Community and East Africa regions in businesses we own and control.”
Nedbank took the decision to sell after a year-long strategic review that led to the reclassification of the Ecobank stake as a financial investment, from a strategic holding, which would need to be managed to extract maximum shareholder value.
Nedbank also announced profit rose in the first half as fee growth boosted revenue and lower credit losses cut impairment charges.
Headline earnings climbed 6% to R8.4 billion ($469 million) in the six months through June, it said. The lender’s impairments shrank 18% to R3.82 billion. The drop in bad debts has allowed the lender’s credit loss ratio to drop to 81 basis points, falling within the board-approved target of 60 basis points to 100 basis points for the first time since 2023.
Nedbank declared an interim dividend of R10.28 per share, surpassing a median estimate of R9.95. – bloomberg
