GTBank grows half year post tax profit to N99bn declares 30k interim

Top tier Nigerian financial institution, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) has released its audited half year financial results, reporting a post tax profit of N99 billion.

The results, filed Friday on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), for the period ended June 30, 2019 showed the profit after tax increased by 3.66 percent from N95.6 billion.

The board of the bank thus announced an interim dividend of 30k per share.

Investors reaction to the corporate action taken by the bank was positive as N1.8 billion worth of the bank’s shares were exchanged in 344 deals.

The stock also closed Friday 0.97 percent higher at N26 from N25.85 recorded in previous session.

Other details of the results shows that the lender improved its profit before tax by 5.7 percent to N115.8 billion from 109.6 billion.

The top line showed that the bank recorded a net interest income of N116.4 billion in the period under review against N117.9 billion in the corresponding period of 2018.

Fee and commission income recorded in the period under consideration increased to N35.4 billion from N27.4 billion, while the fee and commission expense remained flat at N1.51 billion against N1.50 billion the same period of 2018.

According to the financial results, the net fee and commission income closed as at June 30, 2019 at N33.8 billion against N25.9 billion as at June 30, 2018.

N18.6 billion was spent in the period on personnel expenses, same as last year, while other operating expenses reduced to N39.4 billion from N42.0 billion in the first half of 2018.

The earnings per share of GTBank in the first half of 2019 rose to N3.50k from N3.38k in the first half of 2018, the financial statements revealed.