Nedbank delivers strong financial performance

Nedbank Group delivered a strong financial performance for the year ended 31 December 2021 as headline earnings increased to R11.7 billion.

Headline earnings stood at R12.5 billion and R5.4 billion in 2019 and 2020, respectively, an of 115% when compared to the 2020 figures. When compared to 2019, headline earnings decreased by 7%.

Headline earnings growth was driven by significantly lower impairments, a higher net interest margin, a recovery in non-interest revenue growth, disciplined expense management and a stronger financial performance from the group’s associate investment in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI). Pre-provisioning operating profit increased by 9%, the group said in a statement.

Impairments that contributed to increase in headline earnings decreased significantly by 50.1% to R6.5 billion in 2021, compared to R13.1 billion and R6.1 billion recorded in 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Commenting on the results, Nedbank’s chief executive (CE), Mike Brown, says the operating environment was more supportive for Nedbank and its clients during the period under review. The South African economy bounced back faster than most forecasters expected from the low base of 2020. In the third quarter the negative impacts of a prolonged third wave of Covid-19 infections, tighter lockdown restrictions, the July civil unrest in parts of the country and frequent power outages weighed heavily on economic activity but trading conditions improved in the last quarter of 2021.

“The importance of accelerating structural reforms and energy supply security cannot be over emphasised and they remain key to unlocking faster economic growth and job creation in South Africa over the medium-to-longer term.”

“The past two years have been unprecedented and extraordinarily difficult for our clients and employees. Thank you to all our Nedbank employees for remaining resilient throughout the Covid-19 crisis. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and communities of employees and clients who have lost their loved ones during this time,” Brown said.

Markets

The Nedbank Africa Regions (NAR) business delivered a good set of results driven by a good performance from Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) investment and rebound from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) operations.

Headline earnings increased by greater than 100% to R594 million, which is significantly higher than the R12 million(m) reported in 2020, with return on equity (ROE) improving to 9.3% from 0.2% in 2020. The performance reflects the impact of significantly lower impairments, an increase in net interest income (NII) of 14% to R1 448m and a strong recovery in associate income from ETI with related HE increasing to R523m (2020: R153m).

Dr Terence Sibiya, NAR Managing Executive says, “I am pleased that the business across SADC has improved in key client metrics especially in client experience: We are number one in Net Promoter Score (NPS) in Namibia and Mozambique. We have the highest loyalty scores in three of our markets (Eswatini, Namibia and Zimbabwe), and we are also in the top two in brand sentiment scores in four of the markets (Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe) we operate in.”

“We grew our digitally active clients, who now make up 54% of our active retail client base. We also significantly grew transactional volumes on our apps, online banking and prepaid value-added services (PVAS): Nedbank Money App (Africa) has proven to be the channel of choice for our clients with payment and transfer volumes up 35% year on year and value-added services up 26% year on year.” [email protected]