By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s lender, Access Bank Plc on Monday said its profit after tax (PAT) climbed up 7.1 percent in its half-year result for the period ended June 30, 2014 and has offered a 25 kobo interim dividend to investors.

PAT rose N22.587 billion in the H1 of 2014 from N21.097 billion in the same period of 2013.

Similarly, profit before tax (PBT) inched up 3.9 percent to N27.118 billion in the half-year of 2014 from N26.101 billion in the corresponding period of 2013.

Gross earnings rose 15.2 percent to N117.932 billion in H1 2014 from N102.356 billion in the half-year period of 2013, the lender said in a filing to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Analysts at Chapel Hill Denham said the H1 results of Access Bank surpassed expectations in its view on the results, ‘’the lender results were impressive’’ the they said.

‘’While the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth rate trailed our FY-14E growth rate at the bottom line, its annualised EPS of N1.97 surpassed our FY-14E expectation of N1.92 and the market consensus estimate of N1.89,’’ the Chapel Hill said.

Also, it said gross earnings rising 15.2 percent Y-o-Y was ahead of its growth expectation of 14.2 percent Y-o-Y. ‘’The growth was driven by interest income, which ascended by 16.2 percent yoy to N83.6 billion in H1-14. On a quarterly basis, gross earnings rose by 5.7 percent quarter-on-quarter (qoq) to N60.6 billion in Q2-14 from N57.3 billion in Q1-14, as a 28.1percent qoq increase in interest income was countered by a 105.9 percent qoq drop in fee & commission income.

Access Bank offered an interim dividend of 25 kobo per share to its shareholders the same amount it paid last year.

At the close of transactions Monday at the Nigerian bourse, share price of the bank gained 10 kobo as it opened at N9.64 and closed at N9.74 climbing up 1.04 percent.