By Stanley Opara

Thursday, 6 Jan 2011

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has included Oceanic Bank International Plc in its NSE 30 Index.

This follows the quarterly review of the index and four sectoral indices on the NSE, a statement from the bank explained on Wednesday.

The NSE 30 Index includes the top 30 companies in terms of market capitalisation and liquidity, and is weighted by adjusted market capitalisation.

The NSE 30 is a price index that measures the returns on investment from the change in market value of the stocks in terms of capital appreciation and depreciation only.

The management of the bank, however, said the unaudited third quarter results for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2010, which was its latest results, showed a significant improvement in Oceanic Bank‘s bottom line over the comparative period in 2009.

The bank said the results were greatly boosted by low cost of funds (on the back of the drop in interest rates in the second quarter of 2010), improved revenue-expense ratio (mainly due to staff rationalisation at the end of 2009) and the write-back of impairment losses on loans and advances.

Giving highlights of the performance, the bank said, ”As at the end of the third quarter, the Group has written back N14.8bn, while cumulative recoveries on September 30 year-to-date were N111.4bn.

”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, the resilience of the Oceanic brand, excellent customer service and the effectiveness of its 375-branch network.”

During the period, Fitch Ratings upgraded the bank‘s individual rating from ”F” to ”E”, with the bank saying that the feats prompted its first interactive session with shareholders to appraise them of the milestones achieved in its bank‘s turnaround programme and options being explored by the board to recapitalise the institution.

Commenting on the development, the Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr. John Aboh said, ”Our turnaround programme continues to yield good results; we are keeping operating costs in check, pursuing non-performing loans, recoveries aggressively and focusing on risk management.

”If you look at the underlying business of Oceanic Bank, what you find is a solid institution with a resilient brand, committed workforce and loyal customers. This is our winning formula.”

Sharing her outlook for the fourth quarter, Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer of the bank, 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 (end of quarter three) to about 50 per cent, and we look forward to deploying the proceeds to optimise our cost of funds.”

 

Source: Punch