Shareholders of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc will be paid interim dividend as the pan-African financial services group, announces its audited
2015 half year financial results.
Phillips Oduoza, GMD/CEO, UBA Plc.
The results showed strong growth in earnings
and profits, as the Bank continued to benefit from its large customer base in Nigeria, and large pan
African network, which now contributes over 23% of profit after tax.
Management says the bank has benefited from its
prudent management of costs and risk despite expansion of support to Nigerian and African businesses in the midst of increased economic challenges.
In line with best practice in corporate
governance, UBA has elected to have its half year results audited, before its
release to the Nigerian Stock Exchange yesterday.
UBA’s earnings grew strongly by 21% to N166.9
billion during the period, compared to N138.2 billion in the same period of
June 2014. The Bank’s profit before tax (PBT) also rose 35.1% to N39.0 billion,
while profit after tax (PAT) was up a significant 40% to N32 billion within the
same period.
As a reward to shareholders, the Bank has announced the payment of
an interim dividend of 20 kobo per share.
Speaking on the results, Phillips Oduoza,
Group Managing Director/CEO said, “In spite of a challenging operating
environment, our business strategy has proved to be resilient, balancing
prudence, with an ability to significantly grow bottom line and continue to
focus on operating effectiveness. We look forward to continuing to support our
customers and working with them to achieve financial success for them and the
wider Nigerian and African economies”.
Further analysis of
the UBA 2015 half year results showed significant improvement in operational efficiency. The Bank’s net operating income rose 21% to N108.7 billion in
June 2015, compared to N90 billion in the comparable period of 2014. The Bank
has continued to focus on operational efficiency, with a cost to income ratio
of 64%; as against 68% in the same period in 2014.
Oduoza explained, “We delivered strong growth
of 21% in gross earnings and 40% in profit after tax, reflecting better
extraction of value across all business segments and our ongoing process
optimization. It was also satisfying to see our cost-to-income ratio decline
further. We understand that many in
Nigeria and across Africa are facing difficult economic circumstances and we are very much
shouldering our responsibility to support wealth creation”.
UBA maintained a healthy loan book, a tribute
to both its risk management and to the robustness of its clients’s businesses,
with non-performing ratio at just 1.8% of total loans granted, one of the
lowest in the banking industry.
Speaking on the performance of the bank’s
African subsidiaries Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Ugo Nwaghodoh said;
“Our business in Africa (ex-Nigeria) is beginning to significantly impact our
returns, contributing 23% of profit after tax, with an even stronger outlook”.
He also disclosed that recent initiatives
taken by the Bank to improve operational efficiency “are yielding positive
results, thus reinforcing our optimism on the future of UBA’s African
business”.
The UBA Group is one of Africa’s leading
financial institutions, operating in 19 African countries, as well as New York,
London and Paris. The Group provides a sophisticated suite of banking services
to over 8 million personnel and corporate clients across Africa, priding itself
on bringing financial inclusion to the Continent and supporting Africa’s next
generation of entrepreneurs
