The board of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, on Wednesday presented its unaudited result for the nine-month ended September 30, 2018 to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), highlight of which was the slow earnings growth. This situation would have been worse, but for the triple digit rise in trading and other incomes within the period, following which profit after tax managed to grow by 13.25%, helped by the 79.21% drop in loan impairment charge, indicating an improvement in the group’s risk management capacity. It must however be noted that customer loans and advances for the period fell by N178.44bn, or 12.31%; despite the N176.881bn, representing 8.58% growth in customer deposits.
According to details of the financial performance, gross earnings for the period rose to N337.669bn, up by N27.756bn or 8.95% from N309.913bn; with interest income remaining the biggest contributor at N237.545bn, a N10.725bn or 4.31% drop from N248.27bn in the corresponding period of 2017. Interest expense however rose by N8.2bn, or 13.97% from N58.703bn in 2017, to N66.903bn, resulting in net interest income drop from N189.566bn to N170.641bn, representing N19.02bn, or 10.04%.
Loan impairment charge stood at N1.736bn, as against the previous N8.356bn; resulting in net interest income after loan impairment charges of N168.905bn, as against the N181.209bn reported in prior third-quarter.
Fee and commission income rose by N6.58bn to N40.348bn, from N33.771bn; while expenses increased by 47.55% to N2.508bn from N1.699bn, bringing net fee and commission income to N37.84bn from N32.072bn.
Net gains on financial instruments classified as held for trading climbed by N10.12bn or 101.89% from N9.938bn to N20.065bn; other income jumped by N21.38bn or 119.21% from N17.932bn in 2017 to N39.31bn; net impairment loss on financial assets stood at N59.618m from N757.968m.
Personnel expenses rose to N28.121bn from N24.629bn; operating lease expense increased to N2.29bn from N1.45bn; while depreciation and amortization climbed from N11.26bn to N12.474bn. Other operating expenses climbed from N53.021bn to N58.938bn, the lion’s share of which were the N16.307bn paid as Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) expenses, which rose from N13.066bn; followed by the N6.964bn paid for outsourcing services, up from N6.323bn. Also, a total of N6.03bn was paid as deposit insurance premium to the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC); and another N6.174bn in “occupancy costs,” up from N4.517bn previously (relating to diesel, fuel and electricity cost as well as ground rates and water cost); among others.
This resulted in profit before tax of N164.245bn as against the N150.032bn in the corresponding nine months of 2017. Income tax expense dropped to N22.022bn from N24.454bn; bringing profit attributable to shareholders to N142.223bn, from N125.577bn, which translates to N5.03 Earnings Per Share, compared to N4.44 in the prior Q3.