Kenya's Stanbic Holdings first-half pretax profit jumps 17%

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's Stanbic Holdings Plc on Friday reported a 17% jump in first-half pretax profit to 4.82 billion shillings ($44.18 million), buoyed by higher interest income and falling credit impairment charges.

Stanbic Holdings, which operates a bank, a securities brokerage and an insurance agency, said in a statement its net interest income rose to 6.90 billion shillings in the six months to end June from 6.3 billion shillings a year earlier.

Credit impairment charges were down by close to a quarter at 1.5 billion shillings from 1.98 billion shillings in first half 2020.

As part of these measures aimed at cushioning distressed borrowers, the central bank allowed lenders in March 2020 to restructure loans for those firms hit by the pandemic.

That period ended on March 2 this year.

Stanbic Holdings, which is partly owned by South Africa's Standard Bank Group and operations in South Sudan as well, said it had declared an interim dividend per share of 1.70 shillings after a zero dividend in first half of 2020.

Earnings per share rose to 8.86 shillings from 6.46 shillings.

($1 = 109.1000 Kenyan shillings)

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Rashmi Aich)