By Ademola Alawiye

Monday, 22 Nov 2010

Oceanic Bank International Plc said on Friday that it had recovered N111.4bn from bad debts as at the end of the third quarter.

A statement issued by the bank on Friday, said the bank had written back N14.8bn, while cumulative recoveries on September 30, year-to-date, were N111.4bn.

The statement added that in the nine-month period under review, the bank‘s deposit book grew by 15 per cent to close at N626bn, primarily due to sustained customer loyalty.

Non-performing loans to total loans and advances dropped from 73 per cent to 69 per cent, while loans and advances plus advances under finance lease stood at N420.2bn as at September 30, 2010, up by 7.5 per cent from N391bn in December, 2009.

The statement said that the Central Bank of Nigeria‘s efforts at reducing interest rates reflected on the bank‘s interest expense, dropping by 24 per cent from N52bn to N39.5bn.

The Chief Executive Officer, Oceanic Bank, Mr. John Aboh, said, ”Our turnaround programme continues to yield good results; we are keeping operating costs in check, pursuing NPL recoveries aggressively and focusing on risk management.”

He was also quoted as saying, ”The latest results, which show a significant improvement in the bank‘s bottom line over the comparative period in 2009, were greatly boosted by low cost of funds, improved revenue-expense ratio and the write-back of impairment losses on loans and advances.”

On the outlook for the fourth quarter, the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, Mrs. Oyinkan Adewale, said, ”Following the recent court ruling, we look forward to receiving a major boost to the bank‘s liquidity from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria.

“With the resolution of insider-related NPLs, we expect a massive improvement in the bank‘s NPL ratio from 69 per cent to about 50 per cent, and we look forward to deploying the proceeds to optimise our cost of funds.”

Source: Punch