By Devon Maylie
JOHANNESBURG--South African bank Nedbank Group Ltd. (NED.JO)
Monday reported a rise in full-year profit and said that while it's
cautiously optimistic about the outlook for 2013, there are
"downside risks."
"Signs of improvement in various geographies emerged in the
fourth quarter of the year, giving rise to cautious optimism that
global economic conditions may stabilise and potentially start to
improve in 2013," Nedbank said in its earnings release.
But the South African-based bank also said that "there appears
to be downside risk in most developed and many emerging-market
economies." That includes its home market of South Africa.
Nedbank reported headline earnings--a common measure of profit
in South Africa that strips out a number of one-time items--for the
full year ended Dec. 31 rose 21.4% to 7.51 billion rand ($847
million) compared to ZAR6.18 billion the year before.
Profit attributable to equity holders of the parent also rose to
ZAR7.476 billion from ZAR6.190 billion. Nedbank said the higher
profit was due to lower impairments, good revenue growth and better
credit loss ratio.
Impairments fell to ZAR5.199 billion from ZAR5.331 billion the
year before.
Old Mutual PLC (OML.LN) has a 51.5% stake in Nedbank.
Write to Devon Maylie at devon.maylie@dowjones.com
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