Exclusive Interview: Andrew Bainbridge, Group Chief Executive Officer, SBM Holding Limited Mauritius

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Andrew Bainbridge, Group Chief Executive Officer, SBM Holding Limited Mauritius grants an exclusive interview to Capital Markets in Africa. He shared with us his personal life experiences and leadership style as well as SBM Holding’s long-term strategic plans to maximize profitability and enhance shareholders’ value. The Group CEO viewed that the Mauritian banking sector is stable with a low unbanked rate and well regulated, and the sector is growing on the back of a professional and well-trained workforce across the professions, developing Mauritius as an international financial centre with one foot in Africa and one foot in Asia.

Thanks for granting this interview. Please, could you tell our readers more about your background, what motivated your choice of career path and what life experiences have influenced your leadership style?

ANDREW BAINBRIDGE: I am originally from the UK and entered banking in the UK in the late 1980s. I had studied law at University but decided that it was not for me. I joined Barclays as a management trainee and worked in many different areas before becoming the CFO of the Africa business in the late 1990s. I fell in love with the excitement and the ability to make a difference in emerging markets and worked as the MD for Sub-Saharan Africa and the COO for Emerging Markets for Barclays. I subsequently worked for Standard Chartered as the Chief Risk Officer for the Western Hemisphere and then as the Global Head of the Commercial Clients business.

I am incredibly lucky to have done some great roles in fascinating places. I did not start out with a clear career plan or a burning ambition, but with a desire to make a difference and to do interesting things. I have not been disappointed by this path!

Two small events really stick in my mind from my early career. I once asked a former manager of mine, after I had stopped working with him, to mentor me. His immediate reply was that he would be happy to do so but that I must commit to doing the same for others in the future. The second one is about another former manager of mine, who, when I was complaining about something, turned to me and said, “Andy, no one comes to work to do a bad job!”. It is a phrase that has stuck with me ever since and has learned from both of these events helps me to temper my natural impatience by asking myself what I can do to help others around me to do a better job.

Now, let’s talk about SBM Group’s performance. The 12 months of 2018 saw some strong growth figures, compared with the same period in 2017. What are the main factors that you can attribute this growth to, please? And how well positioned would you say SBM Group is to maintain such growth rates going forward, please?

ANDREW BAINBRIDGE: Obviously, our figures in2018 reflected the growth of prior years in our cross-border business, as well as our newly acquired business in Kenya, and the benefit of the carved-out assets and liabilities taken over from Chase Bank Limited (in Receivership). We have spent some time in 2018 rebuilding our cross-border business to give it stronger foundations and, after pausing growth in the second half of 2018 in this business, we are expecting growth to resume, although at lower rates than 2016-18. We still see good growth opportunities domestically in Mauritius as well. We expect the group to carry on growing strongly, albeit at lower rates than 20%+ per annum. This reflects the fact that we are building a strong business in Kenya and a proper full-service bank in India, having become the first foreign-owned Wholly Owned Subsidiary in India last year. Combined with our Indian Ocean franchise of Mauritius, where we are one of the leading franchises in the market, Madagascar and, with effect from Q3, Seychelles, this gives us an excellent network to leverage, serving clients across the India – Africa corridor and around the Indian Ocean rim.

An extract from the INTO AFRICA June 2019 Edition: African Banks: Emerging Growth. To read the full article, please download by clicking: INTO AFRICA PUBLICATION: June 2019 EDITION.