Mike Brown’s Nedbank expects mid-year earnings to more than double

Nedbank Group expects its earnings to more than double as the South African economy revs up for recovery from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The leading financial services provider, one of South Africa’s largest banks, made the disclosure in a voluntary trading update available on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange website.

The group revealed that its headline earnings per share and basic earnings per share for the six months ending June 30 are expected to increase by more than 100 percent compared to their figures last year.

While headline earnings are expected to increase by at least 145 percent to R10.73 ($0.746) per share, the Mike Brown-led banking group expects its earnings to surge by at least 297 percent to R10.72 ($0.746) per share with reasonable certainty.

Nedbank Group is a South African financial services group operating in six other countries in the Southern African Development Community through its subsidiary banks in Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The South Africa-based financial services provider also has an operational footprint in Angola and Kenya.

The earnings guidance that was published yesterday follows a trading update on May 27 where the group announced that its headline and basic earnings for the first six months of 2021 were expected to increase by more than 20 percent compared to last year’s figures.

Nedbank’s bright note to investors shows that the group is making a strong recovery after its full-year headline earnings for the 2020 year declined by 57 percent to R5.4 billion ($375.65 million), as higher impairment costs and lower revenues impacted the group’s performance in the period.

As of press time, 10:10 AM (UTC), Aug. 5, shares in the leading banking group were trading at R183.74 ($12.78), 8.53-percent higher than its opening price of R161.81 ($11.26) as investors rode on the news of the group’s triple-digit growth in earnings.