Capitec today announced a 35 per cent rise in first-half profit for this year. It also said it planned to offer more than 14 million new shares at R160 each – a discount of more than 22 per cent on Tuesday’s closing price.

The bank declared an interim dividend of 169 cents per share – up 35 per cent on a year ago, or 507 cents to 691 cents – and active clients increased to 4,2 million during the period‚ from the 3,2 million recorded last year.

Capitec wants to raise the R2,25 billion through a rights issue so that it can increase lending and fund new growth in its branch network.

As a bonus, it was offering seven new shares for every 50 currently held.

Capitec said:

The R2,25 billion in proceeds from the rights issue will be utilised to fund growth in the loan book as well as expansion of the branch network by between 50 and 75 branches a year for the next three years.

The focus remains on acquiring clients that will use Capitec as their primary bank. Many clients have accounts at a number of banks but choose one as the account into which their salaries are deposited and from which payments are made.

Opportunities exist to broaden our market to include higher income clients that are increasingly exposed to our simplified‚ low-cost offer and are finding that the Global One solution is perfect for their needs.

[Sources: BDlive, IOL]