One of the leading investment banks in the country, United Capital Plc, has announced N5.32 billion as gross earnings for the period ended September 30, 2019. This compares to N5.97 billion the investment outfit made in September 2018, indicating that revenue was down by 11 percent year on year.
United Capital made N241 billion as investment income, N1.39 billion as fees and commission income, N77.9 million as net trading income, N411.6 million as net interest margin while the net operating income was at N4.29 billion. Unlike same period in 2018, the investment bank realised N2.66 billion as investment income, N1.49 billion as fees and commission income, N121.3 million as net trading income, N578.6 million as net interest margin resulting in a net operating income of N4.84 billion.
The Nigerian stock market is down by 15.9 percent year to date. The steady realisation of profitability by United Capital in spite of the market trend could be attributed to the management thinking outside the box. Commenting on the latest financials of the company, Peter Ashade, group CEO attributed the development to the challenging environment.
“While the business environment in 2019 has been quite challenging, compared to what was obtainable in 2018, united Capital Plc Group has been able to consistently deliver on improvement in its numbers as evidenced in the growth in revenue. Profit before taxation and profit after taxation over the three quarters of 2019. This increase was driven majorly by the growth in revenue to the group from advisory business which has seen a CAGR of about 19 percent considering the first three quarters of the year and we also expect this to grow further in view of the various strategic initiatives up our sleeves. More so, revenue from other line items are showing signs of improvement save for revenue from investment income which is made up of income from fixed deposit and investment securities, given the persistent decline in interest rate this year’, Ashade, Group CEO said.
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