Standard Bank, one of the largest African lenders by assets, is planning to expand its footprint across the continent.
Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala divulged the expansion plans while announcing the bank’s half-year results.
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He said that the bank is now well-positioned for expansion and aims to foray into West African Economic and Monetary Union member countries. The expansion will primarily be driven by new acquisitions.
Tshabalala was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We’re also saying that we’re quite comfortable to contemplate appropriately priced acquisitions to the extent that they might fit with our risk appetite.”
However, he did not provide any specific timeframe on the move.
The South Africa-based lender stated that it will divest its 20% stake in the Argentinian unit of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).
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By GlobalDataStandard Bank expects that the sale will generate around ZAR600m ($39.54m) in proceeds. Subsequently, it plans to invest the proceeds in its Africa operations.
Last month, Standard Bank announced to have selected the Infosys Finacle Mobile Teller solution to digitise its branches.
The solution is now live in 107 branches across Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, and Eswatini. Further implementation is currently underway at Standard Bank branches in Ghana and Tanzania.
Recently, Standard Bank also partnered with Motive Partners to drive growth and innovation.
As of 30 June 2019, Standard Bank has a market capitalisation of nearly $23bn.
