-First quater profit leaps by 17.02% increase
Frontline financial institution Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, has recorded a 5.09 per cent decease in its financial year ended December 2017 audited results released to the investing public on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), on Monday.
A breakdown of the results showed that profit after tax decreased by 5.09 percent to N14,608 billion in 2017 when compared with N15,391 billion that was reported same period in 2016. Profit before tax also went down marginally by 1.39 percent from N15,738 billion in 2016 to N15,519 billion in 2017. The bank’s 2017 full year earnings per share equally declined, by 11.96 percent from 0.92 kobo in 2016 to 0.81 kobo in 2017. Interest income grew by 24.90 percent from N99,721 billion in 2016 to N124,549 billion in 2017.
However, the bank’s financial peformance for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018, also released on the NSE on Monday showed that the bank returned to profit.
According to the 2018 first quarter unaudited account, the bank improved on its top and bottom line figures, as profit after tax grew by 17.02 percent from N4,519 billion in 2017 to N5,288 billion in 2018. Profit before tax also went up by 16.01 percent from N4,661 billion in 2017 to N5,407 billion in 2018.
Further analysis shows that the 2018 first quarter gross earnings grew from N34,306 billion in 2017 to N39,466 billion in 2018, an increase of 15.04 percent. Interest income went up by 14.35 percent to N31,674 billion in 2018 which is above N27,698 billion that was recorded same period in 2017. Although, earnings per share decline by 30.77 percent, from 0.26 in 2017 to 0.18 in 2018.
In his comment on the first quarter performance of the bank, Chief Executive Officer of UBN Mr. Emeka Emuwa, said the Q1 reflected the bank’s renewed focus on driving efficiency and productivity with a view to fully leveraging resources including human, technology and new capital to maximize the bottom line.
“While we are just in the early stages of this drive, we are already starting to see positive results,” Emuwa said.
Emuwa disclosed that the bank had been pushing strongly on debt recovery efforts across board including initiating or continuing legal action where necessary.
UGPL acquired 65 percent of the bank’s shareholding and in the last quarter of 2014, AMCON’s remaining 20 percent stake in the bank was acquired by Atlas Mara. UGPL comprises: Africa Capital Alliance, ADC African Development Corporation, Corsair Capital FMO (the Netherlands Development Finance Company), Chandler Corporation and Standard Chartered Private Equity.