Zenith Bank Plc, on Friday, became the first of the interim dividend-paying companies to present its audited financials for the half-year ended June 30, 2021, with Gross earnings dropping slightly from N346.088bn to N345.559bn.
The bank saw N16.37bn or 35.47% improvement in total fee and commission income, lifted by the fees on electronic products which improved by 90.76% to N17.048bn from N8.937bn; followed by account maintenance fee of N14.476bn, up from N9.431bn; among others. Fee and commission expense grew from N12.648bn to N14.857bn. Net fee and commission income improved by 44.26% from N33.503bn to N47.664bn in the period under review.
Interest income amounted to N203.934bn, down by 6% from N216.954bn; with income from treasury bills falling to N20.287bn from N28.383bn and promissory note to just N890m from N3.895bn; and placement with banks and discount houses to N5.664bn from N16.654bn. Revenue from customer loans and advances jumped to N135.426bn from N128.367bn; and income from government and other bonds, which grew from N39.519bn in the 2020 half-year to N41.583bn. Interest and similar expense was driven within the period by borrowed funds and lease, which was constrained at N17.83bn from N17.003bn; time deposit expense fell to N14.239bn from N24.913bn; saving accounts expense slowed down also from N12.622bn to N7.264bn; and current accounts expense from N5.007bn to N4.661bn.
Other operating income however dropped from N24.151bn in the first half of 2020 to N19.829bn; after foreign currency revaluation gain slipped from N22.021bn to N12.489bn. The drop could not, however, be mitigated by the rise in the income on cash handling of N4.799bn, which jumped from N1.007bn in the 2020 half-year.
Non-interest income improved by 8.83% to N126.768bn from N116.486bn. Interest expense dropped by 26.12% from N59.545bn to N43.994bn; leaving profit before tax at N117.059bn, up by a slight 2.57% from N114.124bn. Profit after tax stood at N106.119bn from N103.826bn, a difference of 2.21%; translating to earnings per share of N0.57, from which the directors have proposed an interim dividend of N0.30 for the half-year period.
Trading gains rose marginally from N58.275bn to N59.275bn; operating expenses increased from N82.73bn to N97.578bn; the bulk of which was the N37.92bn paid to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria as levy, up from N30.948bn; followed from after by the N10.395bn spent on the information technology expenses, compared to the previous N8.069bn.
