Barclays Africa Group Hits The Reset Button
Barclays Africa Group, one of the largest banking groups in Africa, recently outlined a new business strategy and a new corporate identity. “Our overriding goal is to become a banking group of which Africa can be proud, a forward-looking African business that recognizes our African heritage, rooted in Africa, with global reach. We have a clear and undiluted ambition to double our market share of African banking revenues to 12%” – Barclays Africa Group CEO, Maria Ramos.
The Plan: restore leading positions in core business areas, while expanding into new markets, enabling the group to deliver double-digit growth.
The Group will expand its corporate and investment banking unit to certain international jurisdictions, with offices set to open in London and later in New York, trading as Absa Securities. Also, Barclays Africa Group will be renamed to Absa Group, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. “The sell-down gave us the opportunity to roll out a brand that reflects our identity in Africa and to unite our operations in 10 countries behind one name. We will be Absa, not as you know it, but relaunched, re-presented and with an identity fit for the new and forward-looking business we are creating” – Ramos.
We’re very excited to have taken the first step on our journey to ultimately having one brand, Absa* across all our operations. To find out more visit https://t.co/BsT66p6oPx pic.twitter.com/BhFOrvsYOq
— Absa South Africa (@AbsaSouthAfrica) March 5, 2018
Absa is currently the brand of the Barclays Africa Group’s South African business. The Absa brand has substantial equity as one of the largest banks in South Africa and enjoys recognition in many of the countries in which Barclays Africa operates under the Barclays brand currently. “We are re-setting our business with a bold, new growth strategy that leverages our existing footprint and market insights. The new identity is further evidence of the scale of the transformation and change in our business – a new brand for a new banking group” – Ramos.
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