By Dipo Olowookere
The third quarter earnings of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Plc have been released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The lender, in the results, said profit after tax rose to N78.8 billion in the period under review from N75.7 billion recorded in the same period of last year. Also, the company disclosed in the financial statements that its profit before tax jumped to N109.5 billion from N98.3 billion.
Ecobank, which closed its first nine months of this year with a net interest income of N195.5 billion versus N215 billion in the same of 2018, recorded an interest income of N372.5 billion in the period under review against N354.1 billion the previous period, and an interest expense of N177.1 billion in Q3 2019 in contrast to N138.9 billion in Q3 2018.
For the fee and commission income, the lender raked N123.8 billion, higher than N115.7 billion in the corresponding period of last year, and fee and commission expense of N9.9 billion versus N14.9 billion.
The net trading income increased to N97.9 billion from N85.0 billion, while the other operating income reduced to N15.3 billion from N17.6 billion, with the non-interest income rising to N227.2 billion from N203.4 billion.
Ecobank said a total of N422.6 billion was raked as operating income in the first nine months of this year, higher than the N418.7 billion in the first nine months of 2018, while the operating expenses jumped to N280.5 billion from N256.0 billion. The major factors that pushed this cost higher was the amount spent by the company on its employees during the period, which increased to N129.0 billion from N114.4 billion, and the other operating expenses, which skyrocketed to N123.5 billion from N118.8 billion.
The impairment losses on loans and advances gulped N66.9 billion in the first nine months of 2019 versus N84.3 billion in the same time of 2018, while impairment charge on other financial assets stood at N11.5 billion versus N4.4 billion.
In the period under review, Ecobank suffered an 8 percent decline in its earnings per share (EPS), dropping to N2.27 from N2.46.
An analysis of the lender’s balance sheet showed a slight weakness as the total assets declined to N8.173 trillion as at the close of business on September 30, 2019 in contrast to N8.224 trillion as at December 31, 2018, while the total liabilities stood at N7.513 trillion versus N7.564 trillion in FY 2018, with the shareholders’ fund reducing to N523.9 billion from N559.7 billion and the customers’ deposits dropping to N5.633 trillion from N5.804 trillion.
