Barclays of Kenya 2012 Profits Rises on Income, Less Loan Losses

Barclays Bank of Kenya Ltd., the East African nation’s third-biggest lender by market value, posted a 7.7 percent increase in full-year profit that beat analysts’ expectations as loan income grew and bad loans fell.

Net income climbed to 8.74 billion shillings ($100 million) in the 12 months through December from 8.11 billion shillings a year earlier, Barclays said in a statement handed to reporters today in Nairobi, the capital. Net interest income, the money lenders make from loans, advanced 11 percent to 18.1 billion shillings, he said.

“Barclays has had a moratorium on lending to certain sectors such as manufacturing and real estate in the past few years and increased consumer lending,” George Bodo, head of African banking research at Ecobank Capital Ltd., said in an interview today. “Their focus is on asset quality because they just don’t want to grow for the sake of growth.”

A Bloomberg survey of three brokerages including Standard Investment Bank, Faida Investment Bank Ltd. and African Alliance forecast net income would total 8.54 billion shillings. Barclays’ shares have risen 4.8 percent this year, underperforming a 15 percent jump on the Nairobi Securities Exchange All-Share Index.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net