Abil lifts profit, dividend flat

Johannesburg - African Bank Investments [JSE:ABL], SA's biggest mass-market lender, reported a 20% increase in first-half profit on Monday, in line with its previous forecast, and kept its dividend flat.

African Bank, which is also known as Abil, said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 136.3c in the six months to end-March, compared with 113.7c a year earlier.

Headline EPS, which excludes some one-time and financial items, is the main measure of profit in South Africa.

The bank, which also owns a furniture business through which it makes loans to consumers, said it would pay a dividend of 85c, unchanged from the same period a year earlier.

The results were widely expected after Abil said this month it expected a 20% rise in first-half profit. That has put pressure on its shares, as analysts are expecting a 30% rise in full-year profit, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Abil has been carving a niche for itself by focusing on the lower-income consumers who were traditionally overlooked by SA's major commercial banks.

Shares of Abil are down nearly 12% so far this year, underperforming a slight decline in Johannesburg's Top-40 index of blue chips.