{"id":42949,"date":"2026-08-18T11:59:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T09:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=42949"},"modified":"2026-08-18T11:59:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T09:59:39","slug":"sas-absa-posts-higher-half-year-profit-as-credit-costs-ease","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-absa-posts-higher-half-year-profit-as-credit-costs-ease\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s Absa posts higher half-year profit as credit costs ease"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">South African (SA) lender Absa Group reported an 8% \u200brise in half-year headline earnings on Tuesday, supported \u200cby higher revenue and lower credit impairment charges.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Headline earnings grew to $787.61 million in \u200bthe six-month period ended June 30.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Absa, the third-biggest \u200blender by assets in SA, declared an \u2060interim dividend of 850 cents per share, up \u200b8.3% year-on-year.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Revenue rose 4% to $3.6 billion as \u200bnet interest income increased 3% to $2.1 billion, driven by growth in customer loans and deposits despite margin pressure.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The group&#8217;s \u200bnet interest margin fell to 4.46% from 4.58%, \u200bas lower interest rates in its rest-of-Africa operations and competitive lending \u200cand \u2060deposit pricing in SA&#8217;s corporate and investment banking business offset the benefits of balance-sheet growth.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Non-interest income increased 6% to $1.2 billion, supported by growth \u200bin fee and \u200bcommission income \u2060on increased client activity and higher lending volumes and a strong trading income \u200bcontribution from Global Markets.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Operating expenses rose 4% \u200bto $1.9 billion, producing a slightly higher cost-to-income ratio of 53.4%.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Credit impairment charges declined 1% to $426 million., \u2060resulting \u200bin an improved credit loss \u200bratio of 94 basis points from 100 basis points.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28228,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-42949","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA lender Absa Group reported an 8% \u200brise","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42950,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42949\/revisions\/42950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=42949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}