By Dipo Olowookere
A member of Standard Bank Group, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, has announced its nine months unaudited group results for the period ended September 30, 2018.
In the financial statements released by the firm, it reported a profit after tax of N59.76 billion, representing an increase of 59 percent for the corresponding period in 2017.
This was as the profit before tax jumped by 54 percent to N70.38 billion from N45.65 billion exactly 12 months ago.
Highlights of the results showed that the gross earnings rose by 9 percent to N168.80 billion from N154.22 billion in the corresponding period of last year, while the net interest income went down to N58.44 billion from N62.95 billion.
However, the non-interest revenue went up by 24 percent to N79.97 billion from N64.28 billion, with the total income increasing to N138.42 billion from N127.23 billion.
For the cost to income ratio, it increased to 52.1 percent from 48.1 percent, while the annualised return on average equity grew by 39.0 percent, with the annualised return on average assets improving by 5.5 percent.
A look at the balance sheet showed that the total assets went up by 11 percent to N1.54 trillion from N1.39 trillion recorded in December 2017.
Also, the gross loans & advances to customers increased by 14 percent to N462.32 billion versus N403.85 billion in December 2017, while the non-performing loans decreased by 39 percent to N21.6 billion from N35.3 billion in December 2017.
The company also said the non-performing loans to total loans ratio dropped to 4.7 percent from 8.6 percent in December 2017, while the customer deposits slightly went down by 2 percent to N738.36 billion from N753.64 billion in December 2017, with the deposit mix improving to 57.0 percent from 49.2 percent in December 2017.
The company disclosed that its capital adequacy levels are significantly above the regulatory limit of 10 percent.
The Group’s total capital adequacy ratio closed the period at 24.5 percent (Bank: 21.4 percent) and Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio of 20.7 percent (Bank: 17.2 percent).
“We remain well positioned and sufficiently capitalized to support future growth ambitions. The Group’s liquidity ratio closed at 90.3 percent, while the bank’s liquidity ratio was at 77.7 percent at the end of September 2018. This ratio is significantly higher than the 30 percent regulatory minimum,” the firm said.
Speaking on the Group’s performance, Chief Executive of Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Mr Yinka Sanni, said, “Our business continued to thrive in the third quarter of 2018 amid industry-wide headwinds, bearish capital market aided by emerging market sell-off and attendant repatriation of foreign capital. Our performance shows steady growth in our balance sheet position, sustained improvement in revenue from fees and commissions and trading lines, though at a slower pace against a backdrop of reduced financial market volumes / trades and reduction in fee income rate particularly for our Wealth business due to the implementation of the multi-fund structure. Nonetheless, we have seen significant improvement in our risk asset portfolio with gross loans and advances up by 14% year-to-date while non-performing loans (“NPL”) portfolio decreased by 39%, thereby improving our NPL ratio to 4.7% from 8.6% in December 2017.
“The decrease in non-performing loans is on account of the declassification of some loans following positive outcome on recovery and rehabilitation efforts. This is coupled with strategic decision to write-off some delinquent loans. The 2% decrease in total customer deposits is due to the competitive yield environment and continued drive to reduce cost of funds which resulted in a 25% decrease in expensive term deposits”.
“We are focused on delivering end-to-end financial solutions to our customers through our enhanced digital platforms as significant investment is being made to achieve this stride. Volume of transactions carried out on our digital platform continues to increase and we are encouraged by the robust transactional volumes from the various platforms. The drop in our net interest income is due to lower yield on government securities compared to the same period in 2017 but the sustained growth in loans and advances will douse the impact on net interest income line in the near term. We remain on track to achieve our guidance by the end of the year. Our focus for the rest of the year is to maintain the momentum in improving the quality of the asset book and to further grow our non-interest revenue line.”
