United Bank for Africa (UBA), Access Bank and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) last week joined the growing list of the listed companies that have so far released their audited financial statement (AFS) for the year ended December 31, 2017. The combined profit after tax(PAT) of the three banks plus the PAT earlier announced by Zenith Bank, GTB and Stanbic IBTC amounted to N607.36 billion, and that represented 59 percent increase over N381.56 billion PAT the six banks made in 2016 financial year.
| Index | Returns as at Jan 31,2018 | Returns as at Feb 28,2018 | 2018 YTD Returns (As at March 23, 2018) | YTD Returns (March 24, 2017) | |
| All Share Index(ASI) | 16.0% | 13.30% | 8.44% | -5.28% | |
| NSE CG Index | NA | 2.60% | -1.76% | NA | |
| NSE Premium Index | 20.5% | 19.31% | 13.75% | -4.13% | |
| NSE Main Board Index | 13.3% | 9.80% | 5.33% | -5.01% | |
| NSE ASeM Index | -1.4% | -2.56% | -7.40% | 0.32% | |
| NSE 30 Index | 15.6% | 12.29% | 7.68% | -5.18% | |
| NSE Banking Index | 23.3% | 21.06% | 12.98% | 0.98% | |
| NSE Insurance Index | 13.0% | 13.02% | 9.71% | -1.22% | |
| NSE Consumer Goods Index | 5.8% | 2.82% | -1.49% | -12.10% | |
| NSE Oil/Gas Index | 10.7% | 3.92% | 8.99% | -10.04% | |
| NSE Lotus Islamic Index | 7.6% | 7.06% | 3.77% | -11.36% | |
| NSE Industrial Index | 20.7% | 19.02% | 15.56% | -2.05% | |
| NSE Pension Index | 21.9% | 16.50% | 14.45% | -2.79% | |
| Market Capitalisation | 16.8% | 14.26% | 10.08% | -4.76% | |
Similarly, the combined gross earnings of the six banks rose to N2.71 trillion, representing an increase of 22.07 percent over N2.22 trillion they made as revenue in corresponding period in 2016.
Announcing the results last week, Africa’s global bank, UBA, made N105.26 billion gross revenue in 2017 which was higher than N90.64 billion made in 2016 by 16.13 percent. Net Interest Income rose by 26 percent to N207.63 billion in 2017 up from N165.2 billion in similar period in 2016.
Profit before tax of N105.26 billion represented an increase of 16 percent over N90.64 billion in 2016. Profit after tax rose marginally by 7 percent to N78.59 billion as against N72.6 billion made in comparable period in 2016.
UBA has proposed 65 kobo dividend per share which will bring the total dividend paid in FY17 to 85 kobo having earlier paid 20 kobo interim dividend in 2017. The bank’s register of members will close on April 10, 2018. The bank’s annual general meeting will hold on Monday April 23,2018.
Access Bank made N459.08 billion as gross revenue in 2017 compared with N381.32 billion it made in similar period in 2016, which implies that the Access’ gross earnings were up by 20.39 percent.
Net interest income after impairment charges increased by 10 percent to N128.98 billion in 2017 from N117.19 billion made in the previous year.
However, a 57 percent increase in net impairment charge led to a 13 percent decline in profit after tax to N61.99 billion as against N71.44 billion realised in 2016. The bank has proposed 40 kobo final dividend per share, and that brought the total dividend for the FY17 to 65 kobo.
In the same week, Ecobank (ETI) announced N763.63 billion gross earnings for the year ended December 31, 2017, and that amounted to an increase of 14.83 percent over N665 billion realised in the previous year. Net interest income was up by 5 percent to N299.32 billion in 2017 from N283.96 billion made in comparable period in 2016.
Fee and commission income rose by 15 percent to N143.80 billion from N124.76 billion in 2016. In spite of 57 percent increase in fee and commission expense, net trading income rose by 23 percent to N127.32 billion as against N103.57 billion in corresponding period in 2016.
PAT rose by a record 233 percent to N69.99 billion from a loss after tax of N52.6 billion in 2016.
Furthermore, as at March 23rd, 2018, a total of twenty-two (22) listed companies have declared dividend, bring the year-to-date dividend to N442.17 billion, BusinessDay’s 2018 Dividend Monitor shows.
Nevertheless, the equity market shed N20 billion week to date while the All Share Index closed year to date at 8.44 percent as against 13.30 percent at the end of February and 16.0 percent on January 31,2018. The inability of the corporate actions to lift up the market has been attributed to absence of clear fiscal and monetary policy directions from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Government (FG).
“The budget is yet to be passed while the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) just announced it would hold a meeting next week. Before such announcement was made, there was not clarity in the fiscal and monetary directions of the government”, Kayode Tinuoye, head, research department at United Capital said.
“And to a large extent, investors have priced in the corporate actions since the beginning of the year when the market posted stellar performance, that is why the market is sluggish now”, Tinuoye added.
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