Barclays Africa Restructures Bank Into Four Operating Units

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Barclays Africa Group Limited, South Africa’s third-biggest bank, said the group will be split into retail and business banking, investment banking, the rest of Africa and wealth and insurance.

David Hodnett, deputy chief executive officer of the South African bank who became finance director in 2010, is taking a two-month sabbatical, the Johannesburg-based lender said in the statement on Monday, without detailing his reasons. Arrie Rautenbach becomes chief executive officer of retail and business banking.

Barclays Africa is splitting its business away from its former parent company in a process that began in 2016 and is scheduled for completion by early 2021. The U.K. bank paid the South African lender 765 million pounds ($1.1 billion) for the separation. The move has meant that Barclays Africa is free to set its own strategy for growth in South Africa and on the rest of the continent where it has operations in more than 10 countries.

Source: Bloomberg Business news