Diamond Bank Loses N6.2b in Six Months

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Mid-tier lender, Diamond Bank Plc, has released its unaudited financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2018.

During the period, the profit after tax went down by N6.2 billion or 77.6 percent to N1.8 billion from N8 billion, while the profit before tax declined by 69.3 percent from N9.5 billion to N2.9 billion.

However, the gross earnings grew by 0.62 percent to N98.5 billion in H1 2018 from N97.9 billion in H1 2017.

In the analysis of the financial results, the bank, which posted a disappointing full year 2017 results, said its interest and similar went down to N75 billion from N76.5 billion, while the interest and similar expenses shot up to N28.5 billion from N22.5 billion.

In the period under review, the net interest income dropped by 14 percent to N46.5 billion from N54.1 billion, while the impairment charge for credit losses closed at N18.4 billion as at June 30, 2018 against N18.9 billion as at June 30, 2017.

Also, the net interest income after impairment charge for credit losses stood at N28.1 billion versus N35.1 billion, with the fee and commission income at N19.2 billion in contrast to N19.2 billion.

In addition, the fee and commission expense was N4.5 billion against N3.5 billion, while the net fee and commission income stayed at N14.8 billion versus N15.7 billion.

Diamond Bank said it recorded a net trading income of N4 billion against N2.1 billion in the same period of last year, while the net operating income was N47.2 billion in contrast to N53 billion.

Under the operating expenses, the lender posted N11.6 billion against N12.5 billion, representing 6.9 percent reduction, while the depreciation and amortization stood at N4.1 billion versus N4 billion, while the operating lease expenses closed at N507.9 million compared with N484.7 million, with the total expenses rising by 1.7 percent to N44.3 billion from N43.5 billion.

A look at the balance sheet by Business Post showed that the total assets dropped by 23.2 percent to N1.6 trillion from N2.1 trillion, while the total liabilities reduced to N1.4 trillion from N1.8 trillion with the shareholders’ fund shedding 7 percent to N221.5 billion from N238.2 billion.

The earnings per share (EPS) depreciated by 77.6 percent in the period under review to 8 kobo from 35 kobo, while the return on assets closed at 0.11 percent from 0.39 percent with the return on equity ending at 0.81 percent from 3.37 percent.