Zenith Bank Q3 Earnings Rise to N491bn, EPS Grows 4.8%

By Dipo Olowookere

One of the tier-one financial institutions in Nigeria, Zenith Bank Plc, on Wednesday released its unaudited financial statements for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and a brief analysis by Business Post showed an improvement from what was realized in the same period of last year.

For instance, the lender increased its gross earnings for the period by 3.52 percent to N491.3 billion versus N474.6 billion in Q3 2018. However, the net interest income reduced by 6.08 percent majorly influenced by a lower interest and similar income, which went down to N321.9 billion from N339.1 billion, indicating a decline of 5.07 percent. The interest and similar expense decreased in the period under review to N107.3 billion from N110.6 billion.

For the impairment charge, it was higher by 28.0 percent, closing at N18.3 billion in Q3 2019 compared with N14.3 billion in Q3 2018, while the net interest income after impairment charge rose to N196.4 billion from N214.2 billion.

According to Zenith Bank, its net fee and commission income stood at N73.9 billion as at September 30, 2019 against N62.0 billion as at September 30, 2018, while the trading income was N66.9 billion as at the end of the third quarter of this year versus N52.9 billion in the same time of last year, with other income closing higher to N16.1 billion compared with N13.8 billion.

In the results, the lender said in the first nine months of 2019, it used a total of N57.1 billion as personnel expenses, higher than N51.7 billion in Q3 2018, while N102.7 billion was expended on operating costs, also higher than N109.9 billion spent for the same purpose 12 months ago.

A look at the bank’s bottom-line indicated that the profit before tax increased by 5.32 percent to N176.2 billion from N167.3 billion, while the profit after tax rose by 4.51 percent to N150.7 billion from N144.2 billion, with the earnings per share rising by 4.80 percent to N4.80 against N4.58 in Q3 2018.

For its balance sheet, the lender showed much resilient with a 6.41 percent year-on-year improvement in its total assets, which rose to N5.978 trillion in Q3 2019 from N5.618 trillion in Q3 2018, while the total liabilities year-on-year rose to N5.107 trillion from N4.840 trillion.

During the period under review, Zenith Bank grew its customers’ deposits to N3.952 trillion from N3.276 trillion, while its loans and advances rose to N2.043 trillion from N1.825 trillion, with investment in securities reducing to N492.0 billion from N590.3 billion.