Nedbank reported a 3.7 percent fall in mid-year profit on Wednesday as a weak showing at Ecobank weighed on results from South Africa’s No.4 lender by market value.

Nedbank owns about 16 percent of Ecobank, whose operations across West Africa have been hurt by lower commodity prices and unfavourable currency swings.

Diluted headline earnings per share fell to 10.78 rand for the six months to June 30 from 11.19 rand a year earlier, said Nedbank, part of Anglo-South African financial conglomerate Old Mutual.

Headline EPS strips out certain one-off items and is the main profit measure in South Africa.

Excluding a 1.2 billion rand ($90.70 million) loss from Ecobank, Nedbank would have managed a 6 percent increase in earnings.

“(Ecobank) remains a strategic investment for Nedbank, providing our clients with a pan-African transactional banking network across 39 countries and access to deal flow in Central and West Africa,” Nedbank said. “While risks remain, we believe the outlook for Ecobank is improving.”

($1 = 13.2300 rand)

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Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; editing by Jason Neely