FirstRand

So it's something that's fairly common in the corporate industry.

So, you know, a number of corporates across South Africa have issued green bonds, including, for example, First Rand have issued green bonds.

We have seen certain sovereigns globally that have issued these and increasingly so very much obviously in Europe, the US and the like.

In Nigeria, they've issued a sovereign green bond a few years ago.

Uh, last but not least, uh, working not only with mobile operators but, uh, with banks as our, as our, our distribution rail is gonna be very important.

And also today we announced, uh, the, uh, first, uh, success output of the partnership that we have with FirstRand on the launch of, uh, uh, um, uh, um, uh, loans and, uh, uh, cash loans services within, uh, FNB, uh, wallet, uh, in, uh, South Africa.

So that means that, uh, the avenues are different and the opportunities are different, and while this is happening, we believe that we can continue definitely growing at a high speed in the ne- next quarters.

Our market in South Africa ha- has quite deep penetration by banks, by other mobile operators.

FirstRand Group reporting its earnings were down 5% for the year to the end of June, mainly because regulators in the UK have ruled the group must increase its payouts for car loans taken through its British arm, Eldermore.

FirstRand is now selling that group.

They made that clear a little while ago.

Without that, though, their normalized earnings were up 13%.

Mary Vilakazi is the CEO at FirstRand.

Mary, uh, good evening, and thanks so much for your time.

You must be disappointed at how the situation in the UK has turned out.

Mary Vilakazi, really appreciate the time tonight.

The one thing that I didn't men- forgot to mention as well when I spoke about the multiplier effect.

Go have a look at European banks, you know, which is, which we've now added to our portfolios, and the reason is that this huge amount of wealth being generated, Singapore, uh, Taiwan, from these people who are building AI, Korea, all of those, they're multi-billionaires or billionaires being, uh, factor there.

The banks are going there and offering them wealth products, which Pitt doesn't like.

But, I mean, you know, those, that's, the banks are going there and picking up new clients.

That's a whole, that's ...

We haven't got there.

Exactly.

We don't have money to invest.

The core operating performance, very strong across companies.

Most of the major franchises, you know, the F&B, commercial, R&B, investment banking, they're growing in the teens.

West Bank was a disappointment.

Given the environment we see in South Africa around vehicle sales and that, it is a bit of a surprise.