Barclays’ teams up with SA’s largest retail bank Absa |
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Wed, 11 May 2005 05:30
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Britain’s third largest bank announced getting an approval to acquire a 60% stake in South Africa’s biggest consumer bank Absa thsi week. Barclays had sought the approval from the shareholders of Absa and a 63 percent majority had okayed the £2.9bn (R33bn) deal giving Barclays control over Absa and making it Africa’s largest lender. In terms of number of customers, it would then rank ahead of the London-listed Standard Chartered bank.
The Barclays-Absa merger is expected to bring more foreign investment into the country. The UK bank would be integrating its own operations with Absa’s businesses in 10 African countries. The deal is a significant achievement for Barclays as finance director Nagub Kheraj says “The outlook for South African banking is excellent.” The deal brings Barclays’ expertise in corporate banking and credit cards, while Absa brings its wide reach into the mass market.
| Absa current strengths and reach are no ordinary achievement. The South African bank has passed many milestones of particular significance. It was once regarded as the “apartheid bank” when it was formed in 1991 by the merging of Volksaas (the then largest Afrikaans bank), United, Allied and Trust banks. The new entity was called the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa which was later abbreviated to ABSA and is being called that ever since.
Making rapid strides with the new combined force, it soon outgrew its reputation as a bank ‘only for South Africa’s white Afrikaners’ into ‘a bank of the masses’. The new image was a result of signing a black empowerment deal and introducing friendly lending policies.
Today, Absa has succeeded in cornering a huge market share largely comprising South Africa’s black middle class with an increasing spending power. It is now known as the bank where getting a loan or opening a savings or current account is a breeze.
Absa then expanded into the rest of Africa with controlling stakes in banks in Mozambique, Tanzania and Angola and minority stakes in banks in Zimbabwe and Namibia.
It took some time and effort for Absa to reach this stage because at every branch of the bank, business was conducted only in Afrikaans. English was used only when considered most necessary or unavoidable. The legacy has survived somewhat: even today when you walk into the bank, the staff will greet you in Afrikaans but will soon switch to English.
Today you will find a considerable number of blacks among the staff. The effort to be politically correct continues at the bank’s ATMs where you will be given a choice of instructions in Zulu, Sotho, Xhosa, Africans or English.
Its current strengths and plans to buy controlling stake in a Nigerian bank make it an investment very much in line with Barclays’ business objectives and strategic move to increase its African holdings.
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Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:38:19 GMT (
Andiswa Manzini ) |
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I would like to know as a Barclays customer who is South African.Could it be possible to make loans with ABSA in South Africa,on a status that I am Barclays customer in the UK? |
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