S.Africa’s Standard Bank plans Angola investment
Reuters - Thursday, January 31
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 30 - Africa’s biggest bank by assets, Standard Bank , plans to invest millions of dollars in Angola to set up a commercial and investment bank and offer retail banking services, a senior executive said on Wednesday.
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Senior executives from Standard Bank, which has applied to the Angolan government to convert its current representative office into a bank, met Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in Luanda on Tuesday.
Angola is experiencing an economic boom, sparked by oil revenues from offshore fields which has made it sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest oil producer and the newest member of Opec.
Peter Wharton-Hood, Standard Bank’s chief executive, personal and business banking, who was in the delegation along with board member and top black businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, said the bank was looking at developing a universal bank in Angola.
“Angola is an exciting market with lots of potential, there are lots of unbanked people. Our primary interest is in developing a commercial and investment bank, we will be developing a retail offering over time,” Wharton-Hood said.
Standard Bank planned to invest about $25 million in Angola, he added.
The group said last year it aimed to become a bigger player in key African countries. In July last year, Standard Bank bought Nigeria’s IBTC Chartered Bank in a deal worth around $400 million, expanding its footprint in Africa’s most populous country.
About $450 million of the proceeds from Standard Bank’s sale last year of a 20 percent stake to China’s biggest lender, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , would be used for growth in existing markets and investments in key markets such as Kenya, Ghana and Angola, the bank said last month.
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