Access Bank posts happy H1’21 numbers with N450.6bn revenue, 30k dividends

Access Bank, the ubiquitous African global bank, and  a leading Nigerian financial giant, has posted year on year growth in its top line and bottom line figures for the half-year ended June 2021 with the banking group reporting gross earnings of N450.62 billion, up by 13.58 percent from N396.76 billion reported the previous year.

The gross earnings are supported by the bank’s impressive performance across the retail, corporate, consumer and business banking segments, as well as the decline in its interest expense to N63.24 billion and N24.68 billion in the review report from N67.53 billion and N31.05 billion last year respectively on the local and foreign sets.

During the review period for the tier-1 lender’s interim consolidated and separate financial statements for the period ended 30 June 2021, its profit after tax grew by 42.44 percent to N86.94 from N61.04 billion reported the previous year with significant contribution from the group’s income tax, which dropped by 20.4 percent to N10.56 billion from N13.27 billion last year.

Also, the banking group’s earnings before tax grew 31.2 percent year on year to N97.50 billion after six months from N74.31 billion in the same period last year.

The bank’s principal activities include the provision of money market products and services, retail banking, granting of loans and advances, equipment leasing, corporate finance and foreign exchange operations.

During the operating period (H1’21), Access Bank announced a definitive and binding agreement with ABC Holdings Limited to acquire 78.15 percent shareholding in the African Banking Corporation of Botswana Limited. It followed that with the birth of Access Bank South Africa following the completion of all regulatory procedures. Those announcements came at the time the financial giant completed the full acquisition of Cavmont Bank, as well as the earlier, reported full takeover of the Transnational Bank of Kenya, amongst other Africa expansion-linked acquisitions.

At the beginning of the year Access Bank disclosed plans to leverage on the benefits from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) treaty, its over 42 million customer base on the African continent, growing users of its digital channels and examining every available opportunity to expand to high-potential markets across the continent and in strategic markets outside the continent.

This led to the bank restructuring into a holding financial company with plans to open subsidiaries in insurance brokerage, consumer lending and agency banking, as well as payments, to boost revenue, a transition which will be completed by the second half of 2021.

All of the financial and operational activities engaged in by the top lender yielded results and drove robust performance across all major segments of the group earnings. As a result, the carrying value of Access Bank goodwill as of the review period printed at N11.78 billion; attributable to the group’s acquisitions in Nigeria (N4.55 billion), Kenya N6.55 billion ) and Rwanda (0.68 billion).

Meanwhile, the earnings per share (EPS) of the group increased to N2.45 from the EPS of N1.72 achieved the previous year. At the share price of N9, the price to earnings (P/E) ratio of Access Bank stands at 3.68x with an earnings yield of 27.18 percent. Also, Access Bank declared an interim dividend of 30 kobo each to its shareholders on the 35,545,225,622 issued ordinary shares of 50k each payable for the half-year 2021 and subject to withholding tax deductions at the time of payment.