Wema Bank 2014 pre-tax profit rises 59% to N3.09bn

Nigeria’s Wema Bank said on Monday it grew its 2014 pretax profit by 59 percent to N3.09 billion, from N1.94 billion a year earlier.

Gross earnings also rose to N35.45 billion, against N28.54 billion the previous year, the bank said in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Nigerian lenders are releasing FY 2014 results that have largely beat analysts’ expectations amid a tough macro environment that threatens profits.

Some analysts however caution that these earnings are backwards looking.

”We see the FY14 results as an irrelevant indicator of the underlying asset quality stress in the banking system, as the feed through from a weaker oil, naira and macro environment will only start reflecting significantly in subsequent 2015 results,” said Adesoji Solanke, Renaissance Capital banking analyst in a recent note.

 “It is this anticipated pain that today’s valuations are pricing in.”

The Nigerian Stock Exchange banking index tracking the nation’s 10 biggest banks by market value has lost 9.71 percent this year to March 20 compared with a 15.36 percent slide in the main all share index.

PATRICK ATUANYA