SBM of Mauritius Looks to New Hires to Sustain Earnings Growth

Mauritius, Capital Markets in Africa: SBM Holdings Ltd., the second-biggest company by market value in Mauritius, plans to reshuffle its top management and make new hires to sustain earnings growth that saw first-half profit more than double.

“With further appointments at strategic posts in the coming months, in line with the implementation of our modernization and diversification plan, SBM is poised to generate new sources of income which will impact even more favorably on our year-end results,” Chairman Kee Chong Li Kwong Wing said in an interview on Friday. “I am very confident that we have opened a new chapter of growth after weathering past headwinds.”

The lender, which also owns a money manager and a stockbroker, in 2015 started implementing a five-year plan aimed at doubling its assets and profit. SBM is focusing on consolidating its different banking businesses, diversifying earnings so that it relies less on banking income, expanding into Kenya and the Seychelles, and growing its presence in India. The company, which also operates in Madagascar, is also readying a new computer system that will be implemented next month.

Net income jumped to 1.58 billion rupees ($$45 million) in the six months through June from 567.2 million rupees a year earlier, the Port Louis, Mauritius-based company said in a statement on Thursday. Impairments improved to 206.8 million rupees from 1.04 billion rupees.

Source: Bloomberg Business News