The board of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, on Wednesday, presented its audited financials for the half-year ended June 30, 2020, indicating that profit grew faster than earnings, helped by a 94.63% leaping trading income, which mitigated the effects of the spike in a net impairment charge on financial assets in the period under review.
The directors have however offered an interim dividend of N4.2bn or 40 kobo per share, from the N4.19 Earnings Per Share, compared to N3.42 earned in the preceding half-year. Payment will be done electronically on Wednesday, September 30, 2020, to the bank accounts of those shareholders on the register as of September 15, which will be closed between Wednesday, September 16 and 23, 2020.
According to the score-card, gross earnings grew by N9.196bn or 7.83% from N117.374bn to N126.57bn, with interest income falling by N5.654bn or 9.3% from N60.784bn to N55.13bn, even as interest expenses was kept low, dropping from N21.474bn to N17.581bn. Net interest income therefore fell marginally from N39.31bn to N37.549bn; a breakdown of which showed that corporate & investment bank contributed to bulk of N20.346bn, up from N18.151bn; followed by personal & business banking, which dropped from N17.726bn to N14.971bn.
Fee and commission income fell slightly to N36.697bn from N37.707bn; fee and commission expense dropped slightly also from N1.738bn to N1.644bn, resulting in net fee and commission revenue of N35.053bn, as against the previous N35.969bn.
Trading revenue soared by N16.657bn or 94.63% from N17.603bn in the first half of 2019 to N34.26bn; just as other revenue dipped by 62.26% from N1.28bn to N483m; resulting in Non-interest revenue of N69.796bn, up by N14.944bn or 27.24% from N54.85bn, lifted by the N42.774bn from corporate & investment banking, up from N27.431bn; followed by wealth management with N23.366bn from N 20.853bn; even as contribution from personal & business banking slipped from N8.069bn in the 2019 half year to N5.745bn.
Income before credit impairment charges therefore amounted to N107.345bn from N94.162bn; while net impairment charge on financial assets at N6.404bn, compared to the N557m reversal of prior half-year. The lion’s share of the impairment was the N33.93bn from corporate & investment banking, as against the prior N1.962bn credit impairment reversal; and N2.47bn in the personal & business banking segment, an increase from N1.44bn in 2019. This left income after credit impairment charges at N100.941bn from N94.719bn.
Operating expenses stood at N48.535bn, a slight drop from N50.069bn, the bulk of which was the N28.628bn other operating expenses, down from N30.184bn, corporat & investment banking accounting for the lion’s share of N22.281bn from N20.188bn; followed by the N21.22bn by personal & business banking, down from N24.731bn in the 2019 half-year. Profit before tax therefore stood at N52.406bn, up by N7.756bn or 17.37% from N44.65bn reported in the corresponding period of 2019. Income tax expense at N7.202bn from N8.405bn meant net profit for the period improved by N8.959bn or 24.72% from N36.245bn to N45.204bn, this would have been far better, but for the N3.215bn loss suffered by the personal & business banking segment, from the N129m profit recorded in 2019.
boosted by the N35.772bn contributed by the group’s corporate & investment banking business, a jump from N23.969bn in the corresponding period of 2019; ahead of N12.646bn by wealth management, compared to the previous N12.084bn.
