Key Highlights of UBA Q3 Financial Statements

By Dipo Olowookere

On Monday, October 16, 2017, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc released details of its financial statements for the third quarter of this year.

The lender, in the 9-month earnings, showed it was still one of the biggest banks in the country.

Business Post is serving its readers with some of the key highlights of the financial institution’s results as released yesterday.

In the period under review, the bank posted a strong growth of 25 percent in gross earnings mainly influenced by improved income in interest and non-interest income.

It was observed that UBA’s interest income improved by 30.11 percent for the first nine months of 2017, while the interest expense increased much slower than interest income for the period under review

Despite the reduced volatility in the foreign exchange market in Nigeria, UBA remarkably increased its trading and forex income by 41.30 percent.

Also, its net fee and commission income grew slightly by 4.03 percent, while other operating income also moved up by 79.38 percent.

During the period under review, the lender’s profit before tax grew by 33.21 percent, while the profit after tax rose by 23 percent on the back of increased tax provisioning as tax margin stood at 22.22 percent as at September 30, 2017.

Furthermore, its total operating expenses grew by 26.37 percent as the firm’s expenses to gross earnings closed at 43.63 percent.

In addition, deposits from customers increased by 13 percent in the period under review, while bank’s basic and diluted earnings per share stood at N1.74k against N1.50k 12 months ago.

However, no dividend was declared by the lender in respect of the three month period ended September 30, 2017.

UBA, in the financial statements, said the bank, in the ordinary course of business is currently involved in 616 legal cases (2016: 650).

The total amount claimed in the cases against the bank is estimated at N469.63 billion (2016: N430.84 billion).

The directors, having sought the advice of professional legal counsel, are of the opinion that no significant liability will crystalise from these cases beyond the provision made in the financial statements. There were no material litigation settlements during the period.

But during the period, UBA noted that it had loan commitments amounting to N115 billion (2016: N108 billion) in respect of various loan contracts.

As at the close of business yesterday, UBA shares finish at the stock market at N9.22k per share.