By Dipo Olowookere
Leading share registration service provider in the Nigerian capital market, Africa Prudential Plc, has declared a profit after tax of N1 billion in the first half of 2019. This was higher than the N985.3 million PAT achieved in the same period of 2018.
Announcing the company’s financial position as at June 30, 2019, the board said the profit before tax improved to N1.2 billion in H1 2019 from N1.1 billion in H1 2018.
However, the gross earnings depreciated to N2 billion in the first half of this year from N2.2 billion in the first half of last year.
This was mainly caused by the reduction in the interest income of the firm, which dropped to N1.1 billion from N1.6 billion, while the revenue from contracts with customers increased to N870.1 million from N593.5 million.
The other income generated by the firm was N22.1 million in H1 2019 against N67.8 million in H1 2018, while the personnel expenses gulped N316 million in the period under review in contrast to N288.4 million in the same time of last year.
A further analysis of the financial statements by Business Post indicated that the other operating expenses reduced to N369.5 million in H1 2019 from N295.3 million, while the finance costs was trimmed to N101 million in the first six months of this year from N427.4 million in the first six months of last year.