Stanbic IBTC Holdings increases profit by 53.9% in 2018

Stanbic IBTC Holdings, a member of Standard Bank Group in its audited report and accounts for the period ended December 31, 2018, recorded a 53.9 per cent increase in profit to N74.44 billion from N48.38 billion reported in 2017.

Over improved profit, the lender proposed a final dividend of N1.50 per ordinary share of 50 kobo each, that is, N15.36 billion.

The group in its results to The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday said profit before tax rose by 44.12 per cent to N88.15 billion from N61.17 billion reported in 2017.

The results, released to the Exchange, showed the group grew its gross earnings for the financial year to N222.4 billion in 2018, compared with the N212.4 billion it achieved in the same period of 2017.

Other key performance indicators were equally impressive. The group’s total assets grew by 20per cent to N1,663.7 billion compared with the N1,386.4 billion in December 2017.

Customer deposit grew by seven per cent to N807.7 billion from N753.6 billion in the corresponding year.

Of note was the company’s ability to reduce its toxic assets appreciably. The gross non-performing loans decreased by 50per cent to N17.7 billion compared with N35.3 billion in 2017.

This decrease impacted positively the gross non-performing loan to total loan ratio, which improved to 3.9per cent, well below the regulatory mark of five per cent, as against the 8.6per cent recorded in 2017.

The non-performing loans figure is even more impressive when viewed against the 14per cent (N458.9 billion in 2018 – N403.9 billion in 2017) increase in gross loans and advances achieved in the financial year.

The Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Mr Yinka Sanni, said the balance sheet size was impacted by “growth in risk assets and financial investment portfolio,” a reflection of investment expertise and quality management, which saw its non-interest revenue rose by 15per cent to N102.6 billion from N89.2 billion in 2017.

According to Sanni, “Strong growth in fees and commission income as well as write-backs, which resulted from recoveries made on previously written off loans and reversals on some non-performing loan, contributed to the strong showing.”

Stanbic IBTC said performances across its three divisions, Corporate and Investment Banking, Wealth Management businesses, and Personal & Business Banking, were strong and contributed to the turnover.

Sanni assured, “As a financial institution we will continue to leverage on our universal financial services capability, unrelenting focus on cost control, digitization and client centricity to ensure that we continue to grow our capacity to provide incomparable high quality end-to-end financial solutions to our customers in a sustainable manner.”