Barclays Africa Beats Peers After Abstaining From Loan Chase
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Barclays Africa Group Ltd. is outperforming its South African peers for the first time in three years after backing out of a chase for market share in unsecured lending helped stem bad loans and boost profit.
The bank is the only stock on the six-member FTSE/JSE Africa Banks Index to show gains this year through yesterday’s close, rising 1.5 percent, compared with the gauge’s 7 percent decline. Even so, it’s still the cheapest lender, trading at 8.8 times estimated earnings against an average of 11 times for its three largest competitors, including Standard Bank Group Ltd. at