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Web Exclusive: Sasfin encouraged to expand into SADC
September 8, 2009

By Mzwandile Jacks

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is in talks with Sasfin Bank and two regional banks in a bid to prompt the JSE-listed specialist bank to have a presence in the rest of southern African, Roland Sassoon, Sasfin’s chief executive, said on Tuesday.

Sassoon declined to name these banks but he revealed that they were from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

“The IFC wants us to have a presence in the region. We can offer these banks technical expertise,” Sassoon said, admitting they did not have a huge presence in the region.

Sasfin is an independent banking and financial services group which first listed on the JSE in 1987.

It provides specialised financial services from stock broking to business finance and equity finance.

“We do want to have some regional presence but we have to be careful not dilute ourselves,” he said, trying to show they would not aggressively push for regional presence.

He added the IFC had introduced Sasfin to many companies after IFC invested $30 million (R 225 million) in the bank in July this year.

The IFC invested the money in Sasfin to enable the bank to spread lending to small and medium enterprises.

It said this investment would consist of up to $10 million in equity investment, enabling the IFC to hold up to a 12 percent shareholding in Sasfin, and a loan of $10 million.

The IFC said the other $10 million would be for trade finance guarantees that were already in place.

The 12 percent stake in Sasfin would allow the IFC a reasonable amount of influence in the specialist bank's corporate governance and operational processes.

Tyrone Soondarjee, the chief financial officer, who described the results as solid, told a media briefing that profit after tax had rose from R184 million to R189 million.

Soondarjee said there was small growth in lending activities. “This was as a result of the credit stress experienced in the markets that we operate in,” Soondarjee said.

Sassoon attributed the company’s performance to the company’s focus on applying more conservative credit and investment policies that enabled the company to strengthen the capital base.

A Johannesburg-based analyst, who did not want to be named, said given massive losses incurred by overseas and local banks, Sasfin’s performance was commendable.

Another analyst, who also did not want to be named, said the results were good within the current environment. “These results were in line with other banks. They were not bad but they were expected in this environment,” she said.