The board of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, on Tuesday presented its audited half-year result to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showing that profit after tax rose by 16.6% despite a 2% growth in gross earnings and a 63.73% increase in interest income.
Other high points of the financials included net interest income after impairment charges which improved to N122.324bn from N41.568bn in the corresponding half-year of 2016, representing 194.27% increase; just as net gains/losses on financial instruments classified as held for trading jumped by 141.38% from N2.346bn to N5.663bn.
Gross earnings for the period crawled from N209.872bn to N214.097bn; with interest income rising to N165.884bn from N109.777bn; and interest expense from N30.662bn to N36.347bn; leaving net interest income of N129.537bn, up from N79.115bn in 2016.
Loan impairment charges dropped by 80.79% within the period from N37.546bn to N7.212bn; resulting in net interest income after impairment charges of N122.324bn, as against the prior half-year’s N41.568bn.
Fee and commission income dropped 22.31% from N36.077bn to N28.027bn; just as fee and commission expense dropped to N965.64m to N1.268bn, representing a 23.86% drop; following which net fee and commission income dropped to N27.061bn from N34.809bn.
Other income for the half-year suffered a 76.45% decline from N61.671bn to N14.521bn, resulting chiefly from the huge drop in foreign exchange revaluation gain from N61.253bn to N6.06bn
Personnel expenses rose to N16.368bn from N14.514bn; depreciation and amortization stood at N7.88bn from N7.01bn; just as other operating expenses increased 31.45% from N32.579bn to N42.826bn, driven by the AMCON (Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria) expenses (levy) of N13.066bn paid for the 2017 financial year as a one-off charge, up from N11.388bn; which left profit before tax of N101.1bn, up 17.99% from N85.688bn in the corresponding half year of 2016.
Income tax expense rose 25.15% to N17.421bn from N13.92bn; while net profit rose to N83.679bn, up from N71.767bn; which translated to earnings per share (EPS) of 296 kobo, as against the previous 254 kobo; just as net profit margin climbed further to 39.08% from 34.2%.
From the EPS, the board has offered a dividend per share of 30 kobo, as against the previous 25 kobo to be paid on September 5, to those whose names are in the register of members as of August 23, 2017.
The reported a balance sheet size over the period of N3.232tr, which rose from N3.116tr in the preceding half year, representing an increase of N115.844bn or 3.71%; customer loans and advances dropping to N1.489tr from N1.589tr, with a flat growth in loans to individual of N156.463bn, compared to the previous N154.707bn; with loans to non-individuals fell to N1.333tr from N1.434tr. Total liabilities rose to N2.694tr from N2.611tr, with customer deposits dropping slightly to N1.966tr from N1.986tr; even as shareholders’ fund rose to N537.997bn from N504.902bn.