The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Standard Bank

  • GE Africa partners Standard Bank on $350m power project

    •Focus on Distributed Power Across Sub-Saharan Africa

    Efforts to increase access to power infrastructure in Africa has received a boost with a US$350million financing agreement between global infrastructure giant General Electric and one of Africa’s leading financial institutions, Standard Bank. The partnership seeks to provide affordable access to power infrastructure to augment traditional large scale grid capacity development.

    The partnership will target 10 priority countries: Nigeria, Angola, Tanzania, South Africa and Ghana. Others are Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Sudan. Financing activity will center on project finance, equipment finance, trade finance and advisory. The program will be open to independent power producers (“IPPs”) and non-recourse infrastructure projects, industrials and manufacturers, natural resource companies, food and agricultural processors, small to medium enterprises (“SMEs”), and other potential borrowers.

    Speaking at a ceremony to announce the partnership, President and CEO of GE Africa Jay Ireland said the partnership comes at the right time when there are concerted efforts to boost access to energy across the continent.

    He said partnerships of this nature would certainly support efforts by respective governments in finding captive power solutions to meet the growing demand for alternative fuels.

    Mr Ireland said this partnership is in line with the country-to-company agreements, which GE has signed with a number of African governments aimed at generating incremental power and increasing access.

    Mrs Sola David-Borha, Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings (Standard Bank trades in Nigeria as Stanbic IBTC Holdings) said the bank was committed to partnerships of this nature that help energise the sector.

    She said the power challenges identified in the focus countries for this partnership were opportunities for growth through sustainable investment.

    Mrs Sola David-Borha also disclosed that through the partnership, financing will also be available for off-grid solutions that rely on cleaner fuels such as biomass and biogas across Sub-Saharan Africa.

     

  • Standard Bank’s confab targets power sector funding

    Key issues on Nigeria’s economic develop ment and securing adequate funding for power sector projects, will be discussed at the fifth Standard Bank West African Investors Conference, holding in Lagos, next month.

    Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos to announce the event billed for February 4 to 6, the Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mrs Sola David-Borha, said the Standard Bank Group has an obligation to help rebuild confidence in the Nigerian economy by highlighting opportunities in power, energy and the food value chain, that investors could explore to derive optimal value for their investments.

    She said this year’s conference, titled: “Nigeria: Time to deliver”, presents opportunity to deepen discourse on quickening the development of the country’s growth sectors and to further highlight the opportunities therein in order to sustain the attractiveness of Nigeria as a preferred investment destination in Africa.

    She said: “The rationale for selecting this year’s theme is that the economic reforms are critical levers for economic development and it is time for all stakeholders to support the government in accelerating growth. In summary, it is time to execute.”

    Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited, Mr. Oladele Sotubo, stated that the conference aims to facilitate direct information exchange between institutional investors and the executive management of companies listed on The Nigerian Stock Exchange, as well as non-listed companies, to facilitate the inflow of capital into Nigeria by fund managers with keen interest in investing in Africa.

    “Besides the direct impact which these exchanges will make on the Nigerian capital market, the conference will provide both local and international investors with opportunities to meet with some of the companies they have investments in, or in which they hope to make investments. It will also serve as a bridge to connect these investors to opportunities inherent in Africa’s growth sectors, for example Nigeria’s power sector which was recently opened up for private sector participation” he stated.

     

  • Standard Bank to dispose assets outside Africa

    Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest lender, is to sell a controlling stake in its global markets business outside the continent.

    “The principal legal entity that would form part of a transaction is Standard Bank Plc, the group’s London banking operation,” the Johannesburg-based lender said in a statement to Bloomberg. The bank said it would retain a minority stake to ensure access to the business for its African network and clients.

    Standard Bank said in July it was exploring closer cooperation with its biggest shareholder Industrial & Commercial Bank of China on its global markets and commodities businesses. Standard Bank’s renewed focus on Africa and withdrawal from other emerging markets weakens the case for keeping some of the investment banking operations it runs from London, where it has been cutting jobs to reduce costs.

    Standard Bank needs to “finally wrap up the process of exiting non-core regions and repatriating the capital,” Neville Chester, who helps oversee the equivalent of $44 billion at Coronation Fund Managers Ltd in Cape Town, said.

     

  • Standard Bank pushes for African expansion

    Standard Bank has said it will press ahead with plans to open another 30 branches in sub-Saharan Africa this year, aiming to cash in on booming loan and deposit growth even as the costs of such investment hit its bottom line.

    Africa’s biggest bank by assets, Standard Bank is 20 per cent owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. It blamed a below-forecast nine per cent increase in first-half profit on costs of investment.

    “It really has been growing rapidly and we’ve continued to invest, which is part of the reason for the cost growth that you’ve seen,” Chief Executive Jacko Maree told Reuters Insider, referring to its 16 operations across the continent.

    “But if you look at the profitability in Africa you saw the profits growing by some 80 per cent, just looking at the on-the-ground banks on the continent, which is a very big jump.”

    He pledged to do all he could to control spending after a 17 per cent rise in the six months to the end of June but said costs would continue to climb as the bank seeks to cash in on an estimated 30-40 per cent rise in loans and deposits across the continent.