GTBank announce N215.6bn pre-tax profit

Guaranty Trust Bank Plc announced a profit before tax of N215.6bn in the year ended December 31, 2018.

An analysis of the financial statement, which was made available to the London Stock Exchange recently, showed that the pre-tax profit grew by 9.1 per cent from the N197.7bn recorded in 2017.

Profit after tax increased by 10 per cent to N184.6bn from N167.9bn in the previous year, while earnings per share grew from 594 kobo in 2017 to 654 kobo in 2018.

The company proposed a final dividend of 245 kobo per share.

The financial statement also revealed that the bank recorded an interest income of N307bn, a 6.2 per cent decline from N327bn in 2017.

It said the decline in interest income was as a result of the 6.1 per cent dip in interest income on loans and advances and 8.2 per cent drop in interest income on fixed income securities.

However, non-interest income grew by 39 per cent to N127.7bn from the N91.9bn noted in 2017 to compensate for the 6.2 per cent decline in interest income.

GTBank said the growth resulted largely from the 22 per cent increase in fee and commission income and growth in other income, comprising advisory, discounts, rebate commissions and revaluation gains.

Gross loans contracted by 10.2 per cent from N1.52tn in December 2017 to N1.36tn due to repayments of foreign currency components of the loan book, owing to improved market confidence and increased foreign exchange liquidity.

The bank’s total assets, however, dropped by 1.9 per cent to N3.29tn from N3.35tn in 2017, while deposits from customers grew by 10 per cent to N2.27tn from N2.06tn in 2017.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, GTBank, Mr Segun Agbaje, quoted, “In 2018, our focus on staying nimble, strengthening customer relationships and driving our digital-first strategy paid off.

“We successfully navigated the pressures of our challenging and radically changing business environment, recorded growth across key financial indices and reaffirmed our position as one of the best-performing and well-managed financial institutions in Africa.” He added.