- FBN Holdings Grows Assets by 10.5% to N5.2 Trillion
FBN Holdings Plc yesterday announced its audited results for the full year ended December 31, 2017, which showed that its total assets grew by 10.5 per cent to N5.2 trillion.
The group’s income statement showed that its gross earnings also rose by 2.3 per cent to N595.4 billion as against N581.8 billion in same period of last year. Net-interest income was at N331.5 billion, up 8.9 per cent compared with N304.4 billion in the previous year.
The result also showed that non-interest income stood at N113.7 billion, down 31.3 per cent as against N165.5 billion in 2016 while operating income of also dropped by 5.3 per cent to N444.8 billion.
Profit before tax rose by 147.6 per cent to N56.8 billion, while profit after tax was at N47.8 billion, representing 178.8 per cent rise. The group proposed dividend per share payment of N0.25.
Commenting on the results, its Group Managing Director, UK Eke, said: “As evident by the continually improving set of results, the initiatives we have put in place are producing encouraging results ahead of our projections. It is noteworthy to highlight that this progress has not been detrimental to our commitment to cost containment, illustrated by the 7.7 per cent year-on-year increase in opex which is significantly below the headline inflation rate of 15.4 per cent. This result was also made possible by the successful implementation of our digitisation initiatives, that have allowed us to serve our customers in a more efficient and effective way.
“It is re-assuring that our dominance in the electronic platform has positioned the Group for a prosperous future and our holding company model is yielding further synergies and increasing cross-selling amongst all the operating companies in the Group”.
Continuing, he said the group recognise the need for accelerated resolution of our legacy assets to demonstrate sustainable improvement in asset quality as the progress we made during the year was moderated by developments in fourth quarter which kept our performance below guidance.
Also speaking, Commenting on the results the Managing Director/CEO of FirstBank and subsidiaries, Adesola Adeduntan, said:
“The Commercial Banking Group has delivered a good performance, despite the still challenging macro-economic environment, with gross earnings up 1.1 per cent year-on-year; Profit before Tax was up 435 per cent year-on-year; and Profit after Tax up by 337 per cent year-on-year”.
The results achieved so far shows that we are on the right track and in 2018 and beyond we are focusing on accelerating the pace of execution of the plan with emphasis on strengthening our technology infrastructure to drive efficiencies; developing and promoting a full digital and transaction banking offerings; sustaining and accelerating the disciplined lending drive, with targeted recoveries, and an improved focus on managing operational risks; whilst continuing with the ongoing repositioning and strengthening of African subsidiaries to optimize returns.
