Zenith Bank Grows H1 2019 Earnings by 2.92% to N331.6bn

By Dipo Olowookere

The board of Zenith Bank Plc on Monday released the financial statements of the company for the half year ended June 30, 2019. A brief look into the results showed growth in key indicators.

The financial scorecard of Zenith Bank, one of the tier-one lenders in the country, indicated that the gross earnings improved by 2.92 percent in the period under review to N331.6 billion from N322.2 billion achieved in the corresponding period of last year.

However, Business Post gathered from the results that in H1 2019, the amount netted by the bank in interest and similar income reduced by 6.17 percent to N214.6 billion from N228.7 billion in H1 2018.

It was further stated in the financial statements that the interest and similar expense went down to N72.1 billion from N74.7 billion, leaving the firm with a net income of N142.5 billion in the first six months of 2019 compared with N154.0 billion in the first six months of 2018, representing a decline of 7.47 percent.

According to the results, the net interest income after impairment loss on financial and non-financial instruments stood at N128.8 billion as at June 30, 2019 versus N144.2 billion as at June 30, 2018.

Zenith Bank said it recorded N55.8 billion from net income on fees and commission against N41.8 billion in H1 2018, while trading gains stood at N45.1 billion versus 36.8 billion, with the other operating income giving the company N8.8 billion, lower than N10.0 billion a year ago.

A total of N38.7 billion was spent on personnel expenses in the period under review, higher than N34.8 billion in the same period of 2018, while operating expenses gulped N76.8 billion, lower than N81.6 billion.

This left Zenith Bank with a profit before tax of N111.7 billion in H1 2019 against N107.4 billion, while the profit after tax rose to N88.9 billion from N81.7 billion, with the earnings per share (EPS) at N2.83k in H1 2019 versus N2.60k in H1 2018.

However, the total assets of the company reduced to N5.899 trillion in H1 2019 from N5.956 trillion in FY 2018, while the total liabilities went down to N5.079 trillion in H1 2019 from N5.140 trillion in FY 2018, with the retained earnings at N314.7 billion in the period under review against N322.2 billion in the corresponding period of last year.