Access Bank Declares 6-Month Net Profit of N63bn

By Dipo Olowookere

The board of Access Bank Plc on Thursday released the financial statements of the company for the first six months of the year ended June 30, 2019.

During the time, the lender recorded double digits growth in both the topline and bottomline, solidifying the confidence investors have in the company.

A brief analysis of the results done by Business Post showed that the gross earnings of the financial institution in H1 2019 appreciated by 28.2 percent to N324.4 billion versus N253.0 billion achieved in H1 2018.

The net interest income improved 82.0 percent to N155.2 billion from N85.3 billion, while the interest expense rose to N117.8 billion from N101.4 billion, with the net impairment charge dropping to N4.9 billion from N7.3 billion and the net interest income after impairment charges growing to N150.3 billion from N78.0 billion.

Furthermore, the fee and commission income jumped to N41.9 billion from N30.3 billion, while the fee and commission expense skyrocketed to N4.3 billion from N217.9 million.

Access Bank said in the first six months of 2019, its net gains on investment securities significantly reduced to N4.2 billion from N59.6 billion, while the net foreign exchange loss stood at N18.9 billion in H1 2019 in contrast to N33.8 billion in H1 2018.

Also, the lender netted N24.4 billion from other operating income in the period under review, higher than the N10.3 billion made in the corresponding period of last year.

In addition, a total of N31.3 billion was used by the company on personnel expenses in the considered time, higher than N26.1 billion in the same period of 2018, while rent expenses reduced to N822.2 million from N2.2 billion, with the other operating expenses gulping N79.8 billion in H1 2019 compared with N61.9 billion in H1 2018.

A look the bottom line showed that the profit before tax of Access Bank in the first half of this year stood at N74.1 billion against N45.8 billion in the first half of last year, while the profit after tax closed at N63.0 billion as at June 30, 2019 versus N39.6 billion as at June 30, 2018, representing an improvement by 59.1 percent.

In the period under review, the earnings per share (EPS) of Access Bank increased by 39.9 percent to N1.93k from N1.38k

Business Post observed that in the first six months of this year, customer deposits broadly rose to N4.2 trillion from N2.7 trillion in the 2018 financial year as a result of the merger with the defunct Diamond Bank, while loans and advances to customers went up to N2.7 trillion from N2.0 trillion.

The total assets of Access Bank as at June 30, 2019 stood at N6.489 trillion from N4.954 trillion as at December 31,2018, while the total liabilities stood at N5.905 trillion from N4.464 trillion.