Nedbank to buy stake in Mozambique bank

Johannesburg - Nedbank Group [JSE:NED] said on Friday it plans to acquire an initial 36% share of Mozambique's sixth-largest lender Banco Unico, and that it would later increase the stake to a majority shareholding.

The announcement comes as South African lenders are scouring the underbanked African continent in the hope of making acquisitions to hedge rising competition back home.

Nedbank, South Africa's fourth largest banking group, also plans to convert a $285m loan to pan-African lender Ecobank later this year, it said.

In its first quarter trading update, Nedbank said that net interest income in the first three months grew 7.3% to R5.121bn from R4.774bn a year ago.

It recorded higher retail impairments as elevated consumer indebtedness and unsecured lending continued into 2013, while the credit loss ratio increased to 1.22% from 1.08% a year ago.