Capitec Bank Holdings overtook FirstRand to become Africa’s most valuable bank, a month after a new chief executive officer took over at the lender that’s reported record profits for four straight years.
Capitec, South Africa’s biggest bank by customer numbers, jumped about 16% since January, outstripping peers on the FTSE/JSE Africa Bank Index, which has climbed 3.5% over the same period. FirstRand is down 1.7%.
The lender’s shares have surged 151,261% since its listing in February 2002. Under former Chief Executive Officer Gerrie Fourie, the bank’s focus on low-income depositors and unsecured lending helped lure customers. Still, competition is intensifying as rivals including Nedbank Group and new lender OM Bank seek to tap the low-income market.
Graham Lee took over from Fourie on July 19.
While Capitec’s market value has jumped to R424 billion ($24 billion), it remains the smallest South African lender in terms of total assets.
| Bank | Total Assets |
|---|---|
| Standard Bank | 3.4 trillion rand |
| FirstRand | 2.5 trillion rand |
| Absa Group | 2.2 trillion rand |
| Nedbank | 1.5 trillion rand |
| Capitec | 239 billion rand |
Capitec was founded by Michiel le Roux in 1997, three years after Nelson Mandela led the African National Congress to victory in the nation’s first election at the end of apartheid. The lender was spun off from financial services company PSG Group Ltd. in March 2001 and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in February 2002.
Since then, the company has transformed itself into a financial services company with more than 24.1 million personal and business clients as of February 28.
BLOOMBERG