Old Mutual Share Price (OML)

Nedbank Reports 20% Profit Gain After Luring More Customers the South African bank controlled by Old Mutual Plc (OML), said full-year profit climbed 20 percent after winning more than half a million new customers. Net income rose to 7.8 billion rand ($878 million), from 6.5 billion rand in 2011, the Johannesburg-based lender said in a statement today. Earnings per share excluding one-time items climbed 21 percent to 16.46 rand, beating the 16.21-rand mean estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. “This was a solid set of results in a difficult trading environment,” Nedbank Chief Executive Officer Mike Brown said in an interview. Bad debts fell 2.5 percent to 5.2 billion rand after an improvement in the credit-loss ratio, he said. Nedbank, South Africa’s fourth-largest lender by assets, combined its private banking operations into one unit and introduced mobile-banking applications to attract customers. The bank also expanded outside South Africa’s biggest cities to increase its share of the low-income market, which helped create 450 jobs and attract 655,000 new clients last year. Nedbank shares climbed as much as 2.9 percent, the biggest intraday gain in four weeks, and traded 2.1 percent higher at 191.95 rand by 12:02 p.m. in Johannesburg. The bank boosted its full-year dividend more than 24 percent to 7.52 rand a share. Nedbank will “probably” sell bonds this year to help meet stricter Basel III capital rules, said Brown, without giving further details. The lender will continue to issue senior unsecured debt to lengthen its funding profile, he said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-25/nedbank-full-year-profit-climbs-20-as-consumer-lending-grows.html

Things are looking good at Nedbank, with better than expect profits in the pipe line.

FTSE 100-listed Anglo-African financial services group Old Mutual is considering undertaking a part flotation of its US asset management business, an article published in the Financial Times has alleged. Patrick Bowes, Director of Communications at Old Mutual was cited by the newspaper as saying: "We are exploring a partial IPO [initial public offering] and not envisaging selling control. [We will go] along the lines of Axa and AllianceBernstein." Nobody was available to comment when ShareCast contacted Old Mutual on Tuesday morning. The timing of the partial stock sale was reportedly dependent on several conditions, such as markets, operating margins, net client cash flow and investment performance. Bowes was cited saying there needed to be a "period of consistent client cash inflow". In the year ended December 31st 2011, Old Mutual reported adjusted operating profit before tax of £1.5bn on an IFRS basis and had £267bn of funds under management from core operations.

I could see this hitting £2 some weeks back, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it reach £2.25. in the not to distant future.

Old Mutual, the financial services giant, said Wednesday that it has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Oceanic Life, the life assurance operations of the former Oceanic Bank in Nigeria acquired by Ecobank Transnational. Chief Executive Officer of Old Mutual's Emerging Markets business, Ralph Mupita, said: "We are delighted to have completed the acquisition of this majority stake and we continue to work with Ecobank to expand our product offerings to the Nigerian market. "The growth dynamics of the industry are exciting and prospects are good for further development of our business operations in West Africa."

Do I see £2 on the horizon, there has been a steady rise in the SP of late. With the restructuring of the business and the prospect of continuing rise in profits could this be in line for a takeover in the future?