Investec sees marginal H1 growth

16th Sep 2010 07:00

South Africa-focused investment bank and asset manager Investec expects half year operating profit to be marginally higher than the year before as growth in its fund business outweighed weaker demand for loans.Since 31 March 2010 core loans and advances have remained flat at £17.8bn, customer deposits have increased by 5% to £23.1bn and third party assets under management have fallen 2% to £72.9bn. However growth in average assets under management jumped 32% in the half year period. Impairments remain at elevated levels, Investec explained, but are starting to improve and the annualised credit loss charge is expected to be within a range of 0.85% to 0.90%. The London listed firm said, "The slower pace of economic recovery has caused a delay in the improvement of the level of non-performing loans and defaults have continued to increase."Investec's UK business is performing in line with the prior year, recording a very strong operational performance, although profits earned on debt buy-backs in the prior year were not repeated. Meanwhile the South African business posted a satisfactory performance, the group added.