C&I Leasing announced on Tuesday that it grew half year profit after tax in 2018 by 18 percent to N682.2 million. It was up from N580 million recorded for the same period in 2017.
The company grew gross earnings by 10.7 percent to N12.8 billion with total assets for improving by 13.9 percent to N51.2 billion. Earning per share stood at 42.19 kobo, representing an 18 percent increase from N35.87 kobo recorded in June 2017.
According to Andrew Otike-Odibi, MD/CEO of C&I Leasing The half-year performance was driven by a recovery in the operating environment, said Andrew Otike-Odibi, the managing director and chief executive officer of the company.
“We recorded an increase of about 11 percent in revenue from N11.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2017 to N12.8 billion and a stronger improvement in our profit after tax (up by 18 percent from N0.58 billion in 2017 to N0.68 billion in 2018). This was achieved through a combination of cost reduction initiatives and optimal utilization of assets,” Otike-Odibi said.
He noted that the company is continually appraising the opportunities presented by the current economic conditions with a view to optimizing group synergies, and disclosed that two overseas subsidiaries of the company, Leasafric Ghana and EPIC International FZE, United Arab Emirates, increased their contribution to the group’s revenue to 34 percent in the first half of 2018 from 27 percent in the same period of 2017.
The company successfully issued a N7 billion bond which was about 133 percent subscribed. According to the leasing firm, the funds will be used for debt refinancing and for business expansion.
“We expect to see the effect of a lower interest cost through the bond issuance in the second half of the year. As at 30 June 2018, the capital adequacy ratio still stood at 10.8 percent below the CBN minimum requirement of 12.5 percent. However, this is due to the pending conversion of $10 million loan stock from Abraaj which is expected to be completed through 2018 and will result in our CAR returning to normalized levels,” the firm noted.
The share price for C&I Leasing however closed flat on Tuesday at N2.44 per share.
