Johannesburg - Standard Bank Group [JSE:SBK], Africa's
largest lender, reported an expected 21% rise in full-year profit on Thursday
helped by a decline in bad debts, and said it expected subdued growth in 2012
as it focused on cutting costs.
Standard Bank, which is 20% owned by Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China, reported diluted headline earnings of 860.4 cents in
the 12 months to end-December, up from 708.6c a year earlier.
The lender had indicated earnings likely rose as much as
22%.
South African banks are rebounding as the credit outlook
begins to pick up after a recession in 2009 squelched demand for loans and
borrowers' ability to repay existing debt.
Rivals Absa Group [JSE:ASA] and Nedbank Group [JSE:NED] and
FirstRand [JSE:FSR] announced earnings growth of above 21% last month.
Standard Bank said net interest income, a measure of
earnings from lending, rose 7% to R28.83bn, compared with R26.84bn a year
earlier.
Credit impairment charges, or bad debts costs, fell to
R6.44bn from R7.39bn a year earlier.
The bank said in January that it lent R75bn to its South
African personal and business customers in 2011, nearly 50% more than the
previous year.
Shares of Standard Bank are up more than 9% so far this year, but it lags smaller rivals on Johannesburg's index of bank stocks.