RMBH Group at a glance
RMB Holding’s sole interest is its 33.9% investment in separately listed FirstRand Limited (“FirstRand”),generally regarded as Southern Africa’s pre-eminent financial services group.
The FirstRand Group comprises a portfolio of leading financial services franchises, including:* First National Bank (“FNB”), the retail and commercial bank;
* Rand Merchant Bank (“RMB”), the corporate and investment bank;
* WesBank, the instalment finance business; and
* Asburton Investments, the group’s newly-established investment management business.
OVERVIEW OF RESULTS
RMBH continued to build on the strong base of the previous year and produced excellent results for the year ended 30 June 2013.
RMBH achieved normalised earnings ofR5.1 billion, an increase of 21% on the comparative period. On a per share basis this amounted to 359.4 cents (2012: 269.5 cents). This outcome was driven by excellent results from FirstRand, which continued to benefit from good operational performances in all franchises.
The final dividend of 104.5 (2012: 73.5) cents per share resulted in total dividends for the year increasing by 36%.The apparent divergence in the growth in dividends relative to the growth in underlying earnings can be ascribed to FirstRand reducing its dividend cover ratio and paying out an increased dividend
OUTLOOK
The group expects to continue good organic growth despite the difficult macroeconomic environment.
