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Johannesburg - Dual-listed banking group Investec has given its business divisions the green light to seek out growth opportunities across the globe.
"Over the past two years we have been quite defensive, but we are now encouraging all our business units to go on to the front foot," said group CEO Stephen Koseff on Thursday following the release of the group's interim results to end-September.
It reported a decrease in operating profit of 10.7% to £216m - a performance Koseff described as "particularly stable".
Asked whether Investec had been too conservative over the past year, Koseff responded: "You couldn't be gung-ho in this market."
He said the business will pursue organic growth to generate shareholder return, as opposed to share buy-backs or major acquisitions.
Since March the company has added two teams of investment banking specialists to boost its exposure in Europe and the resources sector. Still, investment banking was a laggard for the group with an 18% decline in operating profit.
Other steps taken by the business during the interim period included the acquisition of an institutional stockbrokerage in Australia, an aggressive marketing drive to boost its UK trade in foreign exchange and interest rate products, and the launch of new property funds in both Australia and South Africa.
New UK banking laws pose threat
Investec is also retaining its focus on growing customer deposits. Over the last seven months the group has gained 21 000 retail customers and taken £400m in corporate deposits.
Koseff warned that new banking legislation in the UK could have a negative long-term effect on the group's traditional aim to achieve a 20% average return on investment for investors.
For the six-month period Investec was only able to generate an annualised 14.8%.
The new legislation followed the collapse and bailouts of a number of major banks in the UK, which prompted banking regulators to increase the amount of regulatory capital banks need to have on hand.
In Tuesday trade, shares in Investec Limited rose 40c (0.7%) to 5 900 cents per share while Investec PLC stocks were unchanged at 5 645c.
- Fin24.com