Market cap

* For banks, enterprise value is substituted with market cap. Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.

Performance of the brand

In 1991, the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa Limited (Absa) was formed through the merger of UBS Holdings, the Allied and Volkskas Groups. Today, Absa is a subsidiary of Barclays Bank PLC, which holds a stake of 55,5% in the Group and represents one of South Africa’s largest financial services groups offering a complete range of banking, assurance and wealth management products and services to small businesses, individual and corporate customers. The group’s business is primarily conducted in South Africa, however, it also has equity holdings in banks in Mozambique and Tanzania and representative offices in Namibia and Nigeria. The group employs over 36,000 employees and counted 11.8 million customers in the year of 2010.

In 1998, a strategic decision was made to unify and reinvent the entire Absa brand. The complexity of multiple brands with overlapping target markets appeared to be harming the growth and success of the bank. Hence, Absa adopted a single brand and provided a wide selection of financial services, offering simple and uncomplicated banking relationships, value for money, stability, convenience, as well as superior customer service. At this, the key challenge for Absa was to stay relevant, and for the group to become the brand. Thus, the focus shifted to creating a new corporate identity for the Absa Group that would unite all retail banking services, creating a brand that would effectively be accepted by all Absa stakeholders.

With the development of a new brand also came the development of a new Absa visual identity. By choosing the colour red, Absa wanted to differentiate itself from its main competitors through being associated with excitement and energy. According to Absa, the strategic focus of the logo design was the depiction of ‘union; fusion and wholeness’; attributes that the brand stands for today.

In 2011, Absa was ranked 91^st in The BrandFinance^® Banking 500 2011, making it the second most valuable South African banking brand. Moreover, Absa’s brand value increased from $1,390 million in 2010 to $1,876 million in 2011 (35%). However, in the second half of 2011, banks especially found themselves struggling in a recurring financial crisis, spurred by weak structural growth within the Euro zone, the deterioration of the European capital markets and by Greece’s everlasting insolvency problem. Consequently, bank brands in the September update of the BrandFinance^® Global 100 have lost a total of $25.9 billion from their total brand value (7%) since January 2011. As a result, also Absa’s brand value is likely to be affected and might have to face a decrease within the upcoming 2012 banking brand valuation.

League tables

ABSA appears in the following brand league tables:

Rank 89 in the Banking 500 2012.
Rank 91 in the Banking 500 2011.
Rank 108 in the Banking 500 2010.
Rank 95 in the Banking 500 2009.
Rank 422 in the Global 500 2008.
Rank 81 in the Banking 500 2008.