{"id":59432,"date":"2024-01-12T16:44:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T16:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion"},"modified":"2024-01-12T18:15:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T18:15:56","slug":"firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion","title":{"rendered":"FirstRand eyes acquisitions for aggressive Africa expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>FirstRand is looking to purchase other African banks in countries where it operates as the continent\u2019s biggest lender by market value and seeks to expand.<\/p>\n<p>Potential targets for acquisitions may also include financial services outside of traditional banking, Mary Vilakazi, FirstRand\u2019s incoming CEO, said in an interview Thursday at the bank\u2019s headquarters in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n<p>She is due to take over from Alan Pullinger on 1 April.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe there are other ways in which we can participate in financial services without necessarily setting up branches and having a banking license,\u201d Vilakazi said.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge is in finding possible targets at a reasonable price, she added.<\/p>\n<p>Both Standard Bank and Nedbank, which compete with FirstRand in their home market of South Africa, are moving to capitalize on the rapid economic growth that\u2019s transforming many other countries on the continent.<\/p>\n<p>While FirstRand already has units in the west and southern Africa, it is also looking at establishing itself in the east, including in Kenya.<\/p>\n<p>Shares of FirstRand rose 18% last year, lagging behind Standard Bank\u2019s 24% rally.<\/p>\n<p>Though South Africa\u2019s $405 billion (R7.5 trillion) economy has recently been facing headwinds such as record power outages and logistical constraints, Vilakazi said the country\u2019s prospects are brighter in the next 10 years than in the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>National elections this year are expected to be the most competitive since South Africa became a democracy almost 30 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Surveys suggest the ruling African National Congress could lose its absolute majority for the first time since coming to power in 1994.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a democracy, we need to get to a place whereby a party knows that if they don\u2019t deliver, they can lose an election,\u201d Vilakazi said.<\/p>\n<p>The election \u201cmight be muddy, it might be noisy, but I think that\u2019s how we start strengthening our democratic muscle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. FirstRand is looking to purchase other African banks in countries where it operates as the continent\u2019s biggest lender by market value and seeks to expand. Potential targets for acquisitions may also include financial services outside of traditional banking, Mary Vilakazi, FirstRand\u2019s incoming CEO, said in an interview Thursday at the bank\u2019s headquarters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":59431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-59432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FirstRand eyes acquisitions for aggressive Africa expansion - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FirstRand is looking to purchase other African banks in countries where it operates as the continent\u2019s biggest lender by ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FirstRand eyes acquisitions for aggressive Africa expansion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FirstRand is looking to purchase other African banks in countries where it operates as the continent\u2019s biggest lender by ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-12T16:44:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-12T18:15:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705070510.812842.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"FirstRand eyes acquisitions for aggressive Africa expansion\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-12T16:44:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-12T18:15:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion\"},\"wordCount\":322,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/01\/sm_1705070510.812842.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/firstrand-eyes-acquisitions-for-aggressive-africa-expansion\",\"name\":\"FirstRand eyes acquisitions for aggressive Africa expansion - 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