Mauritius Commercial Bank sees FY profit rising

Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) expects full-year profit to end-June to rise to 4 billion rupees from 3.4 billion in the previous year.

MCB, the biggest bank in east Africa and the Indian Ocean region by assets, posted a 19 percent rise in pretax profit of 2.406 billion rupees in the first half ended December 2010.

This was after a drop of annual pretax profit to 4.1 billion last year from 4.9 billion in the previous year.

"Our results for the first semester were most encouraging, with attributable profits up by 15.2 percent for the group," said Antony Withers, chief executive banking of MCB, in the bank's magazine.

"We are back on track towards reaching and hopefully surpassing our performance of 2009, when the group's profit almost reached 4 billion rupees."

Mauritius relies heavily on markets in Europe for its tourism industry, a significant source of revenue.

Recovery this year has been held in check by sluggish growth across much of its core European market as well as the euro's slide against the Mauritius rupee.

"The Mauritian economic environment remains somewhat subdued, and we are all aware of the troubled international environment, particularly in North Africa," Withers said.

It would be good to see the government press ahead with road decongestion projects, because reducing journey times would act as a fillip to productivity in all sectors, he said.

"The other important thing that would spur productivity growth and business investment in Mauritius would be faster internet connectivity," he said.