The South African financial company Absa has successfully moved its operations from the UK to South Africa after its separation from Barclays UK. Absa, which owns Kenya’s Barclays bank, cut links with the British Banking Institution in 2017 after Barclays significantly reduced its presence in Africa.
Absa group is one of the largest banking institutions in Africa and it has subsidiaries in 12 African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Namibia, Ghana, Botswana, Zambia, Mauritius, and Seychelles. Since the separation from Barclays Plc, the lender is re-establishing itself as an independent business focused on African markets.
Between 12th April and 14th April, Absa group halted banking operations in order to move its IT systems from the UK where they had been set up to South Africa. The Group’s head on engineering services Paul O’Flaherty said, “The successful completion of the project, which was large and complex and one of our platinum projects, is a significant milestone in Absa’s separation from Barclays, due for completion in June 2020.” Normal services resumed on Monday.
The Kenyan subsidiary is also going through a rebranding phase which it expects to finalize in June 2020. The process which involves branding its branches, banking systems, and office supplies is expected to drive up the bank’s expenses in the current financial year.
During the recent full-year earnings release, it booked Ksh7.4 billion profit after tax equivalent to 7% gain compared to 2017’s earnings. The board recommended a final dividend of KSh 0.90 per ordinary share, representing a 10 per cent growth.
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