JOHANNESBURG - The Nedbank Group said it has produced a strong performance for the first quarter to end March, underpinned by the return to profitability by its subsidiary Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) in their fourth quarter of 2017.
In the first quarter of 2018 Nedbank’s share of profits in ETI was estimated at R198 million, improving from a loss of R1.20 billion reported in the first quarter of 2017.
“Our earnings guidance for 2018 remains the same as announced on March 2,” the group said.
The bank is encouraged by growing business and consumer confidence, improving economic outlook as well as ongoing delivery on ETI.
The bank’s net interest income grew at low-to mid-single-digit levels and its non-interest revenue grew just above mid-single-digit levels. “Credit demand and transactional activity has remained subdued, but an improvement is expected from the second half of 2018,” the group said.
The share price responded positively as it climbed by 5.4 percent to R315.82 a share, up from Wednesday’s closing price of R300.19 a share.