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Johannesburg - Investment bank Investec [JSE:INL] expects an improved first-half performance, boosted mainly by increased assets under management, the company said on Friday.
The wealth manager said its asset management division had seen net inflows of $4.4bn as third party funds increased by 9% in the five months to the end of August.
Lending contracted by 3% in the period after the sale of some Australian assets in July and the bank said it expected impairments to drop by 12%.
Investec sold its Australian professional finance and leasing businesses for $393m to Bank of Queensland as part of its strategy to offload struggling non-core operations.
Impairments in South Africa were low at the moment, but could tick up should the economy remain weak, CEO Stephen Koseff told investors. Bad debts in the UK would fall as the bank cleared legacy loans.
"For the group, impairments can still come down from where they were because we won't have Australia anymore. They were elevated in Australia and we have cleaned that out," Koseff said.
Earlier this week, the lender said it would dispose of Irish mortgages worth $880m to US private equity firm Lone Star.
The deal was hot on the heels of another sale of UK mortgage business Kensington.
Investec's stock had barely moved by 08:50 GMT, but has gained nearly 40% since January, making it the best performer among South Africa's five biggest banks so far this year.
