• Friday, March 29, 2024
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GTBank’s Q1 profit rises 10% to N49bn despite lower net interest income

GTBank

The decline in net interest income witnessed by Nigeria’s largest bank by market capitalisation, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, in 2018 has extended to the first three months of 2019, but that was not enough to weigh on the lender’s bottom line having grown profit by 10.4 percent in the period.

The impact of Guaranty Trust Bank’s total net income, which fell 7.8 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019 to N74.48 billion compared to N80.77 billion achieved in the same period a year earlier, triggered a 2.5 percent drop in net interest income to N58.22 billion from N59.69 billion. This is despite shaving interest expense by 22.85 percent to N16.26 billion from N21.08 billion.

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) grew after-tax profit to N49.30 billion between January and March 2019 compared to N44.67 billion gained in the same period in 2018. Thanks to lower loan impairment charges coupled with increased income on net fee and commission, gains on trading investments, mark-up exchange and recoveries that made that happen.

Loan impairment charges of the tier-one lender plunged 60.3 percent to N651 million in Q1 2019 as against N1.64 billion in the same period in 2018. That was complemented by a 21.9 percent increase in the bank’s net fee and commission income to N18.01 billion from N14.49 billion.

GTBank gained N2.22 billion on its trading investments and mark to market value in the review quarter after losing N17.31 million in the first three months of 2018. Mark-up exchange income rose to N895 million from N368.9 million, while it realised N6.12 billion from recoveries.

That drove the pre-tax profit of the country’s most capitalised lender to N56.98 billion, this represents about 8.3 percent increase from N52.62 billion recorded in the review period in 2018. Also, its income tax expense dropped 3.42 percent to N7.68 billion from N7.96 billion.

Meanwhile, shares of GTBank shed 2.39 percent to N34.75 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday following the stock’s four-session winning streak. That brings GTBank’s return since the beginning of the year to 0.87 percent, outperforming the market at -4.64 percent and the NSE banking index at -3.9 percent.

 

OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN