* Nxasana says to focus on sub-Saharan Africa expansion
* Looking at exiting Wesbank business in Britain
* Rise in bad debts at retail unit slowing * Shares down 2.6 percent
(Adds CEO comment, background, share price)
By Serena Chaudhry
JOHANNESBURG, June 17 (Reuters) - FirstRand's Sizwe Nxasana plans to expand the group's operations in sub-Saharan Africa and exit markets hard hit by the global financial crisis when he takes over as chief executive, he said on Wednesday.
Nxasana, who takes over the reins of South Africa's No.2 banking group in December, told Reuters in an interview that the firm wanted to be an important regional player in Africa.
"We are going to be focusing a lot more on Africa, on building franchises in the continent," he said. "You cannot ignore Nigeria if you want to be a serious player in Africa."
He said the company was looking to exit markets that the global credit crunch had hurt most, such as Britain, where its vehicle financing unit Wesbank operates.
"It's going to take us a while in some cases because markets still remain relatively illiquid and therefore you can't exit very quickly. But the intention is very clear that we want to exit some of those operations," Nxasana said.
"It's finessing our strategy, making adjustments, exiting those markets which have been exposed by the global financial crisis as unsustainable, and getting into new markets which we believe are going to be important going forward."
Nxasana, who runs FirstRand's core banking unit, is the former chief of telecoms firm Telkom and will be the first black CEO of a major South African banking group.
He succeeds Paul Harris, one of the founders of FirstRand, and will join only a handful of black executives running some of the country's Top-40 blue chips.
RISE IN BAD DEBTS SLOWS
Nxasana, who is an avid gardener and has a passion for architecture, said the group would also focus on setting up partnerships to facilitate trade between India and Africa, as well as China and Africa.
China is India's biggest trade partner in Asia and both countries are eager to make their mark in resource-rich Africa.
Nxasana also said a rise in non-performing loans and bad debts at its retail unit had slowed. South Africa's big banks have all reported mounting bad debts at their retail and corporate units as rising borrowing costs dent demand.
FirstRand said in March it saw little prospect of an improvement in the second half of 2009 after reporting worse than expected first-half earnings due to rising debts.
Its shares fell 2.6 percent to 13.54 rand by 1207 GMT, slightly underperforming a 1.4 percent weaker JSE Banking index .
The group is expected to issue a trading update to investors on Tuesday. (Reporting by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Rupert Winchester)