January 29, 2021
By Paschal IJEH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Pan-African lender, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) said on Friday its profit for the fourth quarter (Q4) period ended December 31, 2020 plunged 63.9 percent to N35.88 Billion from N99.46 billion recorded a year ago.
Profit before tax (PBT) of the bank also declined -55.3 percent to N65.46 billion from N146.54 billion posted the same period of 2019.
Gross earnings of Ecobank Group dipped -1.6 percent to N829.96 billion from N842.49 billion declared a year ago.
Revenue in the review period grew +7.0 percent to N630 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to N586.9 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2019, Ecobank Group said in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The Pan-African lender in a statement Friday made available to InvestAdvocate stated that value of its total assets now stands at N10.2 trillion after a 19 percent rise.
According to the statement the bank also recorded superlative performance in other key financial indices despite the harsh operating environment. “Summary of the report showed that Deposits from customers went up 23 percent to N7.3 trillion; Total equity up 17 percent to N805.1 billion; while Loans and advances to customers grew by 9 percent to N3.7 trillion,” the Ecobank Group affirmed.
“However, despite the bank’s good showing in deposits from customers and revenue, profits was impacted by the provisioning for goodwill for the acquisition of Oceanic Bank in 2011. Consequently, the bank ended with profit after tax of N35.9 billion, while profit before tax and goodwill impairment closed at N126.4 billion. The Ecobank Group had stated that it is optimistic that with clean book aftermath of the full provisioning for Oceanic Bank, it will improve on its profitability in 2021 and other years ahead,” the Pan-African lender added.
Shares of the bank at the close of trading on the Nigerian bourse grew +1.56 percent to N6.50 from N6.40 recorded the previous session, gaining 0.10 kobo per share.
