Confused managers are especially vulnerable to the “silver bullet” of restructuring. But that bullet is a dud. Be warned.
Barclays Plc is poised to lose around ÂŁ400m of the ÂŁ3.8bn capital it invested over the past decade into South Africa’s leading retail bank, Absa.
The new Barclays management team has gone through the motions over the past three months and is set to confirm the biggest disinvestment in South Africa since the spate that hit the country during the mid 1980s.
Barclays is suddenly keen to sell its 62% controlling share in top SA retail bank Absa. The Barclays stake is worth R73bn down by R6bn since last Wednesday.
SA technology innovator Stafford Masie is partnering with Australia’s ANZ which will market his phone-based credit card readers to 400 000 small businesses.
It’s unlikely that you will find a South African in the country who has access to the radio who doesn’t know ‘Steve from bleep bank’. Between FNB’s overwhelming marketing campaign, its definitive move to customer-centric banking and its branding facelift, one has to wonder what the costs have been, and if the juice has been … Read more
FirstRand came out with its highly anticipated results today, despite seeing a 21 percent jump in full year earnings, its share price is down over two percent on the day, perhaps due to the lack of a special dividend being announced. Regardless of FirstRand’s share price, it is certain that the financial services group is in … Read more
From Capitec Bank On 15 August 2014, Moody’s Investor Service (Moody’s) downgraded Capitec Bank’s international deposit ratings to Ba2/NP from Baa3/P-3 and its national scale ratings to Baa1.za/P-2.za from A2.za/P-1.za. All ratings with the exception of the short term No Prime ratings were also placed on further review. The reasons for the downgrade, according to … Read more
Capitec Bank says it has become an unwitting victim of the Abil collapse as global ratings agency Moody’s this evening announced a two notch downgrade of Capitec’s credit rating. The bank’s financial director Andre du Plessis described the Moody’s decision as a “total knee jerk reaction – we had a 30 minute telephone conversation with … Read more
UPDATE NOVEMBER 2012: At the time this article was written, Absa’s share price had dropped in a week from R157 to R135. The setback wasn’t temporary. In five months since the price has remained at the lower level, marking time. At the end of August, Absa’s parent Barclays appointed Antony Jenkins as its new CEO. He has spent his first few months grappling with a group-wide review of Barclays, focusing on how to change its culture and strategy.