Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank) reported impressive financials for the year ended December 31, 2019.
The snapshot of the group’s operating results for the review year shows it grew its gross earnings by 0.14percent to N435.306billion from N434.698billion in 2018, according to its audited financial statement released on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the investing public.
Also, the group’s profit before income tax (PBT) increased by 7.48percent to N231.707billion as against N215.586billion in 2018.
GTBank’s profit for the year 2019 increased by 6.57percent to N196.849billion from N184.711billion in 2018. As at December 31, 2019, the group had eight (8) international banking subsidiaries and two (2) subsubsidiaries. The operations and management of these subsidiaries are monitored and controlled by GTBank Plc.
In the review financial year, GTBank recorded Earnings Per Share (EPS) of 696kobo, an increase from 654kobo in 2018. The directors of GTBank Plc have recommended the payment of a final dividend of N2.50kobo per ordinary share of 50kobo, bringing the total dividend for the financial year ended December 31, 2019 to N2.80kobo (2018: N2.75kobo per share).
The directors had during the 2019 financial year declared and paid an interim dividend of 30 kobo per ordinary share on the issued capital of 29,431,179,224 ordinary shares of 50kobo, for the half-year period ended June 30, 2019. Withholding tax would be deducted at the point of payment.
According to the register of members as at December 31, 2019, no individual shareholder held more than 5percent of the issued share capital of GTBank except for the following: Citibank Nigeria Limited which held the 2,120,607,087 units of shares in its capacity as custodian for the underlying shares of the Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) issued by GTBank in July 2007, and listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Citibank does not exercise any investor rights over the underlying shares as beneficial owner. All the rights reside with the various GDR holders who have the right to convert their GDRs to ordinary shares.
Stanbic Nominees Nigeria Limited held 26.25percent of GTBank’s shares largely in trading accounts on behalf of various investors.
