Access Bank reports 15% growth in H1 earnings to N117.93bn

Access Bank plc yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) released its half-year (H1) 2014 results with gross earnings increasing by 15 percent to N117.932bn from N102.356bn in the corresponding period of 2013.

The bank’s profit before tax (PBT) grew by 4 percent to N27.118bn, from N26.101bn in H1’2013. Access Bank plc reported 7 percent increase in profit for the half-year 2014, to N22.587bn against N21.097bn in the corresponding period of 2013.

The company’s Net Interest Income (NII) rose by 28 percent, to N48.743bn from N37.998bn in corresponding H1 period of 2013.
Access Bank plc has proposed 25kobo interim dividend payable to shareholders whose names appear on the register of the company on or before September 9, 2014. The payment date for the interim dividend is September 23, 2014.

In their first reaction yesterday following the release of this result, analysts at FBN Capital said they rate the shares of Access Bank plc “outperform”, just as they added that their “estimates are under review.”

Further in their response to Access Bank plc half-year (H1) result, the team of analysts at FBN Capital Limited led by Olubunmi Asaolu said, “Although the shares have performed strongly over the last 6 months, adding 22 percent and outperforming the All Share Index by just over 16 percent, they have stalled in the last 3 months, trading sideways for the most part, similar to the ASI.

“They are trading on a current P/B multiple of 0.8x. We believe these results will provide a little bit more reassurance to the markets that the ROAE expansion is on track and, unlike several tier 2 banks stuck with ROAEs below 15 percent, Access Bank is on its way to joining banks with sustainable returns metrics with 20 percent + ROAE,” said FBN Capital analysts.