South Africa’s biggest provider of unsecured loans, African Bank Investments Limited (ABIL), on Friday said it would likely post major profit losses in the six months to end-March this year.

JSE-listed lender, in a trading update, said it is likely to announce a headline loss of R3.3 billion ($315m) during the period under review as operating conditions continued to be tough in South Africa.

ABIL does not have operations outside of South Africa and the last time Ventures Africa spoke to CEO Leon Kirkinis about this matter he had no plans of expanding into the continent.

The firm said it is in a closed period and cannot discuss details of the results until the day the numbers are released.

The lender said consumers remained under financial pressure in South Africa with consumer spending on furniture and other appliances remaining “very” restrained. ABIL owns furniture retailer, Ellerines.

In the trading update, Abil said it is poised to lift its general provision for credit impairment for performing loans by about R2.5 billion ($237.7m).

ABIL’s results for the six months ended 31 March 2014 could be released on or about Monday, 19 May this year.