Goddy Egene
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) last Friday listed the Union Bank of Nigeria Plc’s N30 billion 10-Year, 16.2 per cent Subordinated Unsecured Fixed Rate Series 3 Bonds Due 2029.
The bond was issued by the financial institution under its N100 billion debt issuance programme and its listing will create liquidity for holders who want to trade the security. The bond is expected to boost the performance of the bank going forward.
Union Bank of Nigeria had reported profit before tax (PBT)of N18.7 billion for the half year ended June 30, 2019, showing an increase of four per cent from N11.7 billion in the corresponding of 2018.
Commenting on that performance, the Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Emeka Emuwa had said:“Notwithstanding the realities of operating in a challenging economic environment, the group delivered a four growth in PBT toN12.1 billion from N11.7 billion in H1 2018. To sustain growth in earnings, we remained steadfast in our commitment to delivering value and first-class customer experience to all our customers. We have developed a concerted and clear plan to increase our risk assets with our loan book growing by eight to N563.0 billion compared to year-end 2018. The ability to take on more risk is hinged on our robust risk management and debt recovery processes working in sync which led to recoveries of over N5 billion in the period.”
According to him, the bank would continue to focus on opportunities to deliver our simpler, smarter banking promise to our customers while improving internal operational efficiencies which will translate to enhanced shareholder value.
Also speaking, Chief Financial Officer, Joe Mbulu said:“In the first half of 2019, we continued with our expansion strategy to grow our agency banking footprint which in turn boosted customer confidence in our brand. Customer deposits have followed the same trajectory with a four per cent growth, to N889.5 billion as at June 2019 from N857.6 billion in December 2018.
