With the race to replace Sim Tshabalala as the next Standard Bank group CEO wide open, whoever is appointed to the most sought-after role in South Africa’s banking will have huge shoes to fill in replicating or bettering the lender’s growth under Tshabalala.
Business Day perused the group’s performance since 2013, the year Tshabalala was appointed co-pilot alongside Ben Kruger, until he took the sole CEO role in 2017.
A study of the lender’s annual reports dating back to 2013 shows that the group’s assets grew a staggering R1.6-trillion, more than Nedbank’sassets and not far off from that of Absa.
The growth in assets, alongside a surge in headline earnings in the period, has cemented Standard Bank as Africa’s largest lender by assets, with the group’s corporate and investment banking and aggressive expansion into African markets the main lever behind the growth.
As early as more than a decade ago, Standard Bank targeted future earnings growth in Africa, where, in stark contrast to South Africa, many countries are achieving annual GDP growth above 5%.
In 2011, the group affirmed Africa as the nucleus of its growth strategy. Since then it has disposed of its operation in Russia and controlling interests in operations in Turkey, Argentina and Brazil and scaled back other operations that did not offer a clear strategic link to Africa.
By the end of the 2015 financial year the group had completed the work necessary to ensure that resources and energies were entirely focused on Africa and on connecting the continent to the wider world.
The performance of Standard Bank’s operations in the rest of Africa reflects advances made in this regard, with the rest of Africa’s portfolio now contributing more than 40% to group earnings, up from 12% in 2010.
The importance of the African regions came to the fore during the 2020 downturn due to Covid-19, a year in which the rest of Africa portfolio did the heavy lifting, contributing 58% of the group’s earnings.
The Africa region, which now spans 20 countries outside South Africa, has also played an instrumental role in lifting the performance of Standard Bank’s corporate and investment banking (CIB) business, which has grown headline earnings from R5bn in 2014 to R20.5bn in the 2024 financial year, accounting for nearly half the group’s earnings.
The group has continued to leverage its leading industry expertise in CIB in energy and infrastructure to continue driving Africa’s just energy transition and the mobilisation of sustainable finance.
Profit has also more than doubled under Tshabalala’s tenure, rising from R17.2bn in 2023 to R44.5bn in 2024, with shareholders receiving market-leading dividends as the lender paid more than R55bn in dividends in the past two financial years.
The Africa strategy has allowed the group to develop a powerful on-the-ground presence across the rest of Africa, with CIB playing a leading role in the growth seen over the years.
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