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Standard Bank profit up 11%

Johannesburg - Standard Bank Group [JSE:SBK], Africa's biggest bank by assets, reported an 11% rise in half-year profit on Thursday, bolstered by a decline in bad debts as underlying growth remains subdued.

Standard Bank, which is 20% owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said diluted headline EPS totalled 421.3c in the six months to end-June, compared with 381.2c a year earlier.

Headline earnings, the main gauge of profit in South Africa, exclude certain one-time items.

Lenders in Africa's top economy have been slowly recovering after a 2009 recession squeezed corporate demand for credit and sparked a surge in job losses and household debts.

Demand for loans remains weak and Standard Bank has been struggling to rein in costs after aggressive expansion in Africa and other emerging markets.

This month it agreed to sell most of its stake in its Argentine unit to ICBC for $600m.

Net interest income, a measure of earnings from lending, totalled R14.32bn compared with R14.45bn a year earlier.

Credit impairment charges, or bad debts costs, totalled R2.97bn, down sharply from R3.79bn a year earlier.

Standard declared a dividend of 141c per share, unchanged from a year ago.

Shares of Standard Bank are down 16% so far this year, making it the worst performer on Johannesburg's index of bank stocks .
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