October 23, 2018
By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s top tier lender, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank) said its pretax profit for the third quarter (Q3) period ended September 30, 2018 climbed up 9.5 percent to N164.2 billion from N150.0 billion recorded a year ago.
Similarly, post-profit increased 13.3 percent to N142.2 billion from N125.6 billion recorded the corresponding period of 2017.
While gross earnings increased from N309.1 billion in the Q3 of 2017 to N337.2 billion in the review period of 2018; indicating a surge of 9 percent, the lender said in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The dual listed bank on the Nigerian and London Stock Exchanges in an emailed statement to InvestAdvocate said it’s loan book dropped by 12.3 percent from N1.449 trillion recorded as at December 2017 to N1.270 trillion in September 2018, while customers’ deposit grew by 8.6 percent to N2.239 trillion from N2.062 trillion in December 2017.
GTBank says it’s balance sheet remained resilient with total assets and shareholders’ funds closing at N3.433trillion and N534.3Billion respectively, a 2.4 percent growth from total asset position of N3.351trillion as at December 2017.
Also, capital adequacy ratio (CAR) declined 300bps to 22 percent despite the impact of IFRS 9 implementation. In terms of assets quality, non performing loan (NPL) ratio and cost of risk (COR) improved to 5.6 percent and 0.1 percent in September 2018 from 7.8 percent and 0.5 percent position in December 2017 respectively.
“Complementing the improvement noted in NPLs and COR, we maintained adequate Loan Loss coverage of 180.6 percent for Lifetime Credit Impaired Loans (NPLs). On the backdrop of this result, post- tax return on equity (ROE) closed at 32.7 percent; while return on assets (ROA) stood at 5.6 percent.
“Despite operating in a very challenging business environment, our third quarter result is a reflection of how we have appropriately positioned our balance sheet to cope with economic realities. It further demonstrates the strength of our business strategy to deliver financial services that enriches the lives of our customers and creates more value for all our stakeholders,”Segun Agbaje, managing director/CEO GTBank said while commenting on the results.
“Going into the final quarter of the year, the Bank will continue to drive its digital-first customer-centric strategy to improve customer experience and expand its range of service offering whilst constantly differentiating itself by maintaining a high standard in service delivery and putting customers at the heart of everything that we do, ” he added.
The nation’s top tier lender, continues to be best-in-class in the Nigerian banking industry in terms of all financial ratios i.e. post-tax return on equity (ROE) of 32.7 percent, post-tax return on assets (ROA) of 5.6 percent, cost to income ratio of 38.3 percent and PBT margin of 48.7 percent. These ratios are testament to experienced management, efficient balance sheet structure coupled with operational efficiency of the bank.
