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Johannesburg - Jacko Maree, the chief executive of Standard Bank Group [JSE:SBK], retired on Thursday after 13 years at the helm of Africa's biggest lender.
Standard Bank said the 57-year-old Maree, one of the most respected figures in South African financial circles, would be replaced jointly by Sim Tshabalala, the head of its South African operations, and Ben Kruger, who runs its investment banking division.
"The board expresses its deep appreciation to Jacko for his substantial contribution to Standard Bank over a career of more than 32 years and is delighted that his skills will remain within the group," said Standard Bank group chairperson Fred Phaswana.
"Under Jacko's leadership, the Standard Bank share price has increased from R21 to R118, the dividend per share is up almost seven times, and the group's market capitalisation has grown from R30bn to R190bn," the bank said.
Maree would remain employed by the group as a senior banker focusing on key client relationships, but would not perform an executive or managerial role.
Tshabalala would remain CEO of SBSA and would take charge of the group's banking businesses outside South Africa, on the African continent.
He would also take charge of the group's wealth businesses, including responsibility for Liberty Holdings [JSE:LBH].
Simon Ridley, the group financial director, would report to him.
Kruger would remain in charge of personal and business banking and corporate and investment banking. He would remain chairperson of Standard Bank and would also be responsible for the group risk function.
Chief operations officer Peter Wharton-Hood would be responsible primarily for IT and operations, and would report to Kruger.
Branching out
Under Maree, Standard Bank ramped up its overseas presence, aggressively adding branches across Africa, a strategy that has been widely lauded.
However, his decision to push into other emerging markets such as Argentina, Turkey and Russia was seen as a costly blunder and the bank has since scaled back its ambitions outside Africa.
Under his watch, Standard Bank sold a 20% stake to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a deal that highlighted China's growing role in Africa and Standard Bank's ambition to profit from trade with Asia.
"There's been an understanding in the market that he's had a long tenure and that there could very well be a change so it’s not much of a surprise," said Steve Meintjes, head of research at brokerage Imara SP Reid.
"The fact that they are making internal appointments points to depth of management."
Standard Bank also on Thursday reported an 8% rise in full-year profit, helped by double-digit growth in income from fees and lending.
South African banks have been targeting previously ignored lower-income earners with no-frills accounts and high-margin unsecured loans.
They are also focusing more on Africa, where the number of people without access to financial services is much higher than in their home market.
Standard Bank has operations in at least 17 African
countries.
Results
The bank said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 931.7 cents from 860.4c last year.
The bank said last month it expected underlying profit to rise by as much as 12%.
Net interest income, a measure of earnings from lending, increased by 18% to R34.015bn as Standard Bank wrote more loans.
The lender has increased higher risk lending across its African network, which has nudged credit impairments 37% higher to R8.8bn.
Non-interest income, which includes revenue from arranging deals and advisory services, rose 16% to R34.36bn, largely from increasing its number of customer accounts.
Its shares were little changed at R116.88 at 07:22 GMT, outperforming a slight decline in benchmark Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index .
