The board of Access Bank Plc, on Wednesday presented its audited result for the half-year ended June 30, 2017, indicating that gross earnings grew faster than profit, despite the decline in fee and commission income, just as the group sustained a net loss on investment securities for the period. The effect of this was however mitigated by the robust net foreign exchange income of N59.022bn, as against previous half-year’s N11.108bn loss; while other operating expenses jumped to N69.136bn from N47.79bn.
Just as expected, the directors approved a dividend of 25 kobo just as last half year from earnings per share of 138 kobo, which represented an improvement over the previous half year’s 117 kobo.
According to the half-year report, gross earnings grew by N72.564bn or 41.46%, rising from N174.011bn to N246.575bn; helped by the interest income that grew from N112.292bn to N161.905bn. Interest expense equally climbed to N78.863bn from N43.841bn; leaving net interest income for the period at N83.041bn from N68.45bn. Net impairment charge was flat at N10.362bn, compared with prior half-year’s N10.212bn; following which net interest income after impairment charges came to N72.676bn, up from N58.238bn.
Fee and commission expense rose to N250.51m from N57.448m, while net fee and commission income dropped from N35.574bn to N24.826bn. Net loss on investments securities stood at N3.645bn, from N33.089bn gain in the first half of 2016; net foreign exchange income stood at N59.022bn, compared to the previous loss of N11.108bn.
Other operating income at N4.216bn was slightly better than the preceding N4.163bn. Personnel expenses rose to N27.743bn from N22.068bn; rent expenses increased to N1.665bn from N990.251m; even as other operating expenses increased from N47.79bn to N69.136bn.
Profit before tax therefore stood at N52.048bn from N43.993bn in the 2016 half year; even as income tax grew to N12.588bn from N10.355bn; resulting in profit for the period of N39.459bn, which was N5.822bn or 17.3% better than the N33.637bn recorded in the corresponding period of last year. The net profit translated to Earnings Per Share of N1.38, compared with the previous N1.17
EPS 138/117
On the balance sheet side, Access Bank’s total assets dropped slightly to N3.455tr from N3.483tr, with customer loans and advances dropping to N1.739tr, as against the N1.809tr reported in the 2016 half-year; while total impaired loans and advances increased to N45.496bn from N36.613bn. Total impaired loans and advances to gross risk assets for the period jumped to 2.48% from 1.97%.
Total liabilities for the period also dropped slightly to N2.974tr from N3.029tr, after customer deposits fell to N1.899tr from N2.089tr, even as deposits from financial institutions improved to N227.595bn from N167.356bn.
Shareholders’ funds therefore rose to N480.48bn, compared to the N454.494bn recorded in the corresponding period of last year.
Closure date to qualify for the dividend has been fixed for September 7, while payment is slated for September 21, according to a notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by Sunday Ekwoche, Access Bank’s Company Secretary.