Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. has reported a profit before tax of N109.6 billion for the half-year period ended June 30 2018.
The reported profit is 8.4 percent higher than N101.1 billion recorded one year ago.
The profit, buoyed by a 5.9 percent increase in gross earnings of N226.6 billion during the review period was also strengthened by a 34.3 percent growth in non-interest income amidst declining yields on government securities propelling a 2.4 percent downturn on income earned on interest.
Consequently the bank proposed an interim dividend of 30 kobo per share to shareholders for the current half year period.
The results show interest expense reduced by 20.9 percent in the reporting period to N44 million from N36 million in 2017.
Marked improvements were also seen in profit after tax, which jumped 14.2 percent to N95.6 billion from N83.7 billion in 2017.
Net assets however dropped to N497.1 billion from N625.2 billion in December 2017, representing 20.5 percent decline.
The company paid about N14.1 billion in taxes 19 percent down from 17.4 billion paid in the corresponding period of 2017, as loan book dipped 10.8 percent from N1.449 trillion recorded as at December 2017 to N1.293 trillion in June 2018.
The Bank’s balance sheet however remained strong with a 5.9 percent growth in total assets as the bank closed the period ended June 2018 with total assets of N3.549 trillion and customers’ deposit grew by 10.0 percent to N2.269 trillion from N2.062 trillion in December 2017.
In terms of Assets quality, NPL ratio improved to 5.8 percent in June 2018 from 7.7 percent in December 2017.
Overall, asset quality improved with cost of risk of 0.1 Perce y and adequate coverage of 167.5 percent for lifetime credit impaired loans i.e. NPLs.
Capital remains strong with CAR of 22.04 percent in spite of the implementation of IFRS 9. On the backdrop of this result, post tax Return on Equity (ROAE) and Return on Assets (ROAA) closed at 34.1 percent and 5.5 percent respectively.
Following the release of the results Wednesday August 8, 2018 Segun Agbaje, the MD/CEO of GTBank said “In spite of declining yields and the challenges in the operating environment, we have delivered a decent half year result.
The quality of this result is built on the strength of our businesses as well as the success of our digital-first customer-centric strategy in delivering financial services that are simpler, cheaper and more valuable to our customers’ everyday lives.
We will continue to focus on consolidating our leading position in all the economies in which we operate by staying committed to building a business that is both nimble and efficient whilst strengthening relationships with our customers and creating business platforms that provide them with additional benefits beyond banking.”
Other highlights of the results include, cost to income ratio of 38.8 percent, net interest margin of 9.6 percent and profit before tax margin of 48.4 percent.
