Ecobank Profit Drops by 26%

• Ecobank Profit Drops by 26%

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Plc has announced a drop of 26 per cent to $151.3m in its group profit before tax for the 2017 half year.

Its profit after tax also dropped by 19 per cent to $123.4m.

In naira terms, the bank said its PBT and PAT rose respectively by 11 per cent and 21 per cent, to close at N46.2bn and N37.7bn, accordingly.

The bank’s gross earnings declined by six per cent to $1.3bn, as loans and advances to customers went up by two per cent to $9.5bn.

Commenting on the result, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Ade Ayeyemi, said, “Our audited half year results demonstrated the benefits of our diversified business model. Despite a fragile macroeconomic backdrop in most of our markets, we still generated a 15.6 per cent return on tangible equity and further improved our cost-to-income ratio to 60.6 per cent, driven by our continued cost reduction initiatives across the network.

“Our revenues increased five per cent in constant currency, and highlighted encouraging growth in our trade and FICC businesses, thanks to encouraging client activity and improving foreign-exchange markets. Profit before tax, however, fell 20 per cent in constant currency, due to continued provision building and elevated cost-of-risks as we had earlier communicated.”