Union Bank earnings surges by 16% in H1 2018

 

Union Bank of Nigeria today declared 16 percent gross earnings for the half year ended June 30, 2018.
The group unaudited financial statements for the period sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today in Lagos showed that Union Bank’s gross earnings up by 16 percent to N83.3 billion against N72.1 billion in half year 2017 2017, driven by a 10 percent increase in interest income and 37 percent increase in non-interest income.
Profit before tax of the lender increased by 23 percent to N11.7 billion from N9.5 billion recorded in half year 2017.
Also, it interest income rose by 10 percent to N62.2 billion as against N56.6 billion in half year 2017.
Net interest income before impairment moved up to N34.4 billion from N30.1 billion recorded in half year 2017; driven by an improvement in net interest margins from 7.9 percent to 8.2 percent on the back of lower cost of funds.
Its non-interest income increased by 37 percent to N21.1 billion; driven by enhanced treasury trading income, recoveries and 311 percent growth in alternate channel revenues.
Gross loans of the bank down by 9 percent to N508.5 billion due to successful recovery/collection efforts and the write-off of some fully provisioned non-performing loans.
While the bank customer deposits rose to N826.7 billion against N802.4 billion in December 2017; reflects 66 percent increase in foreign currency deposits and the optimization of our local currency deposit book towards low-cost deposits.
Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Emeka Emuwa, said “In the first half of the year, we have continued to see positive results from our efficiency and productivity drive. Across all our business lines, we witnessed strong underlying performance, translating into improved earnings. We continue to focus on the recovery of non-performing loans. With the resolution in second quarter 2018 of the large real estate exposure which was impaired in December 2017, the Group NPL ratio is down to 10.8 percent from 14.9 percent at 31 March 2018 and 19.8 percent at 31 December 2017. The Group continues to demonstrate its ability to deliver strong results notwithstanding a competitive and challenging operating environment.
Gross earnings rose by 16 percent to N83.3 billion from N72 billion in half year 2017, underpinned by improved Net Interest Margins (NIM), robust treasury trading income, recoveries and alternate channel revenues, on the back of increased customer adoption. Our profit before tax grew by 23 percent compared to half year in 2017.”