Investec profit seen 'marginally higher'

18th Mar 2010 11:24

Investec expects full-year operating profit to be "marginally higher" than last time as the UK, Europe and Australia offset weakness at the South African business.The company, which posted an operating profit of £368m a year ago, said it has enjoyed a "resilient" performance during the year ending 31 March 2010."UK, European and Australian operating profits are well ahead of the prior year," the South Africa-focused bank said Thursday. "The South African operations have traded ahead of the first half of the financial year, but are expected to post a weaker full-year performance."Defaults have continued to increase, although at a slower pace, while core loans and advances have grown 10% since March last year to £17.8bn, customer deposits are up 37% to £20bn and third party assets under management have jumped 42% to £69.4bn.Investec, which joins the FTSE 100 next Monday following a 28% rally in the last month, said its capital adequacy ratio remained steady at 15.5%.