What FirstBank will gain from N25bn Injection- GMD

Shareholders have been assured of greater value with the injection of N25 billion capital  by FBN Holding into its commercial banking arm, FirstBank. U.K. Eke, the group CEO of FBN holding who stated this, added the injection would also consolidate the bank’s market leadership.

Eke stated this during the Q2 analysts conference call on the second quarter results of the company.

The GMD said the group delivered a very robust financial performance, which demonstrates its resilience and the successful execution of its strategy.

According to him, FBN Holdings delivered earnings growth, strengthened its balance sheet; maintained a strong liquidity profile; consolidated its leadership in e-banking whilst also keeping its costs under control amidst the a very challenging period for the sector and the economy as a whole.

“From the financial performance, gross earnings was up 5.8 per cent year-on-year, profit after tax for the period was up 56.3 per cent on the back of strong growth in non-interest income.

“The progress made in our non-interest income was driven by good treasury management activities benefiting from the increased volatility as well as increasing market share in the e-banking segment,” he said.

Meanwhile, giving further insight into the capital injection, Wale Ariyibi, the chief financial officer of FBN Holdings, said: “FBN Holdings injected N25 billion into First Bank of Nigeria Ltd (FirstBank) as equity capital. This capital injection has cleared all regulatory approvals.

“However, this is not the total amount received as consideration for selling our 65 per cent holdings (investment) in FBN Insurance. The N25 billion is made up of two parts: net proceeds of sale of stake in FBNI , which is gross proceeds less professional fees, charges and other cost of sale and FBNHoldings’ own funds.”

According to him, with the injection, FirstBank leveraged this Tier 1 capital with its existing Tier 2 capital to increase its capital adequacy ratio from 15.3 per cent as at Q1 2020 to 16.53 per cent as at Q2 2020.

“FirstBank has made significant progress in agent banking, increasing its agent banking network by over 100 per cent to 59,024 agents within the period. Similarly, it crossed the N5 trillion threshold for value of transaction processed, as we processed 5.71trillion compared to N1.61trillion in the prior period.

“More importantly, we are monetising our agent banking and its revenue contribution to e-business income continues to grow. The growth in volume and value across our electronic banking channel continues to offset the reduction in regulated fees and this has allowed us to keep our revenues flat,” he said.

Eke added that as promised, non-performing loans(NPL) ratio has remained in single digit and continues to decline, saying the NPL ratio dropped further to 8.8 per cent from 9.9 per cent at year end.