Absa’s new CEO, who is yet to be announced, will have their work cut out for them as the country’s third-largest bank warned its journey to regain market share lost over the years will not be easy or short.
At 3%, the growth in Absa’s normalised headline earnings — a measure of performance that strips out the effect of the interest the group is earning on the Barclays divorce settlement — sat at the lower end of the single-digit spectrum. This compares with Standard Bank’s growth of 6%, although it was slightly better than Nedbank’s 2.6%.
Van Wyk said Absa is using the difficult economic environment to find selective growth opportunities and take market share where it feels it is appropriate to do so. “If you look at a difficult economic environment and you want to show growth, you put in strategies in place to do that,” said Van Wyk.