Standard Bank's entry strategy into Africa

Abstract

Emerging markets offer atractive business opportunities to international companies. This is due to their high margins, as a result of the risk-reward trade-off and the large customer base that can realise economies of scale in a short period of time. Concomitantly, South African banks are following their clients into Africa in order to provide them with corporate financial servies. In addition, a largely under-serviced local population provides an ongoing customer base for retail banking offerings. Standard Bank has the largest presence of any South African bank in Africa, conducting business, as it does, in seventeen African countries. The current research has identified economic and political factors in emerging markets that are likely to have the most significant impact on Standard Bank's operations in Africa. Additionally, the implication that these conditions hold for the choice of entry strategy was also investigated. The finidngs indicated that Standard Bank's corporate strategy for Africa plays a larger role than do the emerging market conditions when deciding on acquisition versus greenfield entry into a particular markets. Standard Bank also derives a first-mover advantage (FMA) in both the corprate and retail banking spaces in new markets.