By InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Union Bank of Nigeria plc (UBN) on Monday said its 2015 first quarter (Q1) pretax profit climbed up by 11 percent to N4.94 billion from N4.45 billion recorded the same period of 2014.

Profit after tax (PAT) also rose 11.3 percent to N4.90 billion from N4.409 billion reported a year earlier, according the lender in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The same vein, gross earnings increased 13.3 percent to N29.01 billion from N25.60 billion in the same period of 2014.

The return on equity was 9.5 percent compared to 9.4 percent reported in the Q1 of 2014; while the earnings per share grew to 29 kobo from 26 kobo in the same period of last year.

Emeka Emuwa, managing director/chief executive officer (MD/CEO) of the bank commenting on the result said during the Q1 of 2015, Union Bank was focused on delivering critical operational and technology initiatives. “We have completed migration to Oracle Flexcube UBS 12.0, the latest version of the Flexcube banking platform, which will eliminate previous system redundancies and enable faster customer service and turnaround times in our branches once full integration has been achieved by mid-year,” he said.

According to him, the lender continued to focus on growing its corporate and commercial businesses and enhancing its retail product offering.

Maintaining the momentum from 2014, gross earnings increased by 13% in the first quarter of 2015 compared to Q1 2014, and despite pervasive headwinds in the macro-economic environment, the Bank delivered Profit Before Tax (PBT) of N4.9 billion during the quarter, an 11% increase over the same period in 2014.

“Going into the rest of the year, as our new platform enhances efficiencies, the bank will focus on growing the retail business with a revamped product portfolio, enhanced marketing communication and an evolving branch network, which will include four of our, high tech, self-service banking centers, Bank of the Future (BOTF). At our BOTF centers, customers can open and fund their accounts instantly using self-service kiosks and ATMs, and also get product information and one-on-one customer service using interactive screens. Further commenting on the first quarter numbers, chief financial officer,” Oyinkan Adewale added.

At the close of business on the Nigerian bourse, share price of the bank went down 2.45 percent to close at N10.75 per share from N11.02 the previous session losing 0.27 kobo.