Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Shareholders of Sterling Bank Plc will get a cash dividend of 3 kobo for each stock of the company held by shareholders of the organisation as at the close of business of Monday, May 4, 2020.
The disclosure was made on Thursday by the board of the mid-tier bank after it released the financial statements of the company for the year ended December 31, 2019.
The lender said while it would close its register of members from May 5 to 8, 2020, the payment would be done on May 20, 2020, advising shareholders to update their records to receive the payment.
In the results released today, Sterling Bank marginally improved its gross earnings by one percent to N150.2 billion from N148.7 billion in 2018, posting an interest income of N127.3 billion in 2019 over N125.2 billion in the prior year, and a lower interest expense of N62.6 billion in the period under review versus N69.9 billion of the previous year. This left the firm with a net interest income of N64.7 billion in FY 2019, higher than N55.3 billion in FY 2018.
The lender raked more in net fees and commission income in FY19, N14.6 billion, compared with N11.8 billion in FY18, while the trading income reduced to N5.1 billion from N8.6 billion, with other trading income flat at N3.2 billion in the two financial years under comparison.
Furthermore, Sterling Bank printed an operating income of N87.6 billion in 2019 versus N78.8 billion in 2018 and with a credit loss expense of N5.8 billion (vs N5.8 billion in 2018), it closed December 31, 2019 with a net operating income after credit loss expense of N81.8 billion, higher than N73.0 billion as at December 31, 2018.
During the 2019 fiscal year, personnel expenses gulped N14.9 billion compared with N13.2 billion in the corresponding period of 2018, while other operating expenses took N18.1 billion from the bank’s purse as against N16.7 billion in the previous year, with N22.9 billion spent on general and administrative expenses in FY19 versus N20.8 billion in FY18. The lender said the total expenses for the year under consideration stood at N71.1 billion in contrast to N63.5 billion a year earlier.
For the bottom-line of the results, Sterling Bank recorded a profit before tax of N10.7 billion in the 2019 fiscal year, higher than N9.5 billion in the 2018 financial year. Also, its profit after tax increased by 15.2 percent to N10.6 billion from N9.2 billion as a result of the N70 million paid in the year under review as against the N271 million paid 12 months earlier.
Business Post reports that the earnings per share (EPS) of Sterling Bank improved in the FY 2019 to 37 kobo from 32 kobo and on the balance sheet, the total assets slightly increased to N1.2 trillion from N1.1 trillion, while the total liabilities jumped to N1.1 trillion from N1.0 trillion.
During the year, the loans and advances to customers reduced to N618.7 billion from N621.0 billion, while the deposits from customers increased to N892.7 billion from N760.6 billion, with the retained earnings improving to N6.2 billion in 2019 from the N3.3 billion loss in 2018.
