The management of United Capital Plc, on Wednesday presented its performance score-card for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017, with gross earnings faster than profit, an indication that much more needs to be done in the remaining period of the year to ensure it continues to offer shareholders premium returns on their investment going forward.
According to the result, gross earnings income rose by N256.664m or 13.82% from N1.856bn in the corresponding first quarter of 2016 to N2.113bn; with investment income rising to N1.057bn from N947.547m; while fee and commission income dropped to N407.806m from N550.888m. Net interest margin rose slightly to N373.969m from N260.729m; resulting in net operating income of N1.842bn, up from N1.761bn.
Other income jumped by 178.94% or N170.431m to N265.573m, compare with the previous N95.242m
Personnel expenses rose for the period to N300.536m from the previous N226.201m; other operating expenses increased from N206.162m to N392.866m; depreciation and amortization rose to N24.399m from N20.621m; resulting in total expenses of N717.802m from N452.984m.
Profit before income tax therefore dropped to N1.395bn in the absence of last year’s N18.033m, which contributed to helping the figure to N1.421bn.
With income tax of N223.27m from N283.784m in 2016, profit for the period stood at N1.172bn from N1.137bn, representing Earnings Per Share of 20 kobo; up from 19 kobo in the corresponding period of 2016.