Goddy Egene
FBN Holdings Plc has grown its profit after tax (PAT) by 26.5 per cent to N73.7 billion for the year ended December 31, 2019, up from N58.2 billion in 2018.
According to the audited results released yesterday, FBH Holdings Plc posted gross earnings of N627 billion in 2019, showing an increase of 6.7 per cent compared with N587.4 billion in 2018.Net interest income moved from N285.3 billion to N290.2 billion, while non-interest income rose from N132 billion to N159.2 billion.
Impairment charges fell 41.5 per cent to N51.1 billion from N87.5 billion. Consequently, profit before tax (PBT) printed at N83.6 billion in 2019, up by 30.9 per cent from N63.9 billion in 2018. PAT stood at N73.7 billion, compared with 58.2 billion in 2018. The board has recommended a dividend of 38 kobo per share for the shareholders.
Commenting on the results, the Group Managing Director of FBN Holdings Plc, UK Eke, said: “We are happy to close the 2019 financial year on positive notes across a number of key metrics giving the group a clean-slate to accelerate its growth plan as we conclude the three-year Strategic Planning Cycle which ran from 2017-2019 and commence a new cycle which coincide with the start of a new decade. In line with our promise to the market, FBN Holdings closed the year with a 30.9 per cent y-o-y increase in PBT and delivered its target of a single digit non-performing loan (NPL) which closed at less than 10 per cent.
Similarly, we successfully overhauled our risk management architecture, strengthened our processes by leveraging technology and institutionalising a strong credit culture across the lending entities. These deliberate steps have seen the NPL ratio of our vintage book remained below one per cent. In the same vein, we have made significant improvement in our revenue generation capacity with non-interest income benefiting from our market leadership in electronic banking channels. It is also noteworthy to highlight that our investments aimed at improving operational efficiencies and enhancing revenue accretion have resulted in higher cost-to-income ratio. The benefits of these investments will be realised in subsequent periods.”
Also commenting on the results Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank said: “The Commercial Banking group delivered a solid performance in 2019 with PBT increasing by 83.1 per cent despite varying degrees of challenges and volatility in the operating environment. As a bank, 2019 marked the effective completion of the 2017 – 2019 strategic cycle and a key accomplishment during the cycle is the substantial resolution of our NPL ratio dropped to 9.7 per cent from 24.3 per cent as of 31 December 2018), thereby positioning the group for accelerated growth in profitability.”
