FCMB Impresses With 34.02% Growth in Earnings, 44.44% Rise on PAT

By Dipo Olowookere

Mid-level Nigerian lender, FCMB Plc, maintained an impressive financial performance in the first quarter of 2022 by growing its gross earnings by 34.02 per cent to N58.3 billion from N43.5 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

The company’s accounting statements analysed by Business Post showed that it reported an interest income of N46.7 billion in the period under consideration compared with the N33.4 billion posted in the same period of last year, driven by a significant increase in income from loans and advances to customers and others.

The interest expense also increased to N18.5 billion from N12.2 billion, leaving the net interest income at N28.2 billion on March 31, 2022, in contrast to N21.2 billion as of March 31, 2021.

The results showed that money generated from account maintenance, electronic business, service fees and others improved FCMB’s fee and commission income by 32.47 per cent to N10.2 billion from N7.7 billion, while the fee and commission costs rose to N2.6 billion from N2.0 billion.

In the first three months of this year, the firm grew its net trading income to N2.5 billion from N1.5 billion, while other income stood at N254.8 million as against the N153.7 million reported in the first three months of last year.

In the period, personnel expenses increased to N7.6 billion from N7.2 billion, while the general and administrative costs rose to N9.7 billion from N8.0 billion, with the other operating expenses increasing to N7.6 billion from N6.4 billion.

A look at the bottom line of the results disclosed that the profit before tax stood at N6.0 billion in Q1 of 2022 versus N4.2 billion in Q1 of 2021, while the profit after tax expanded by 44.44 per cent to N5.2 billion from N3.6 billion, with the earnings per share at 26 kobo as against the 18 kobo achieved a year ago.

It was observed that loans and advances to customers in the period under consideration were almost flat on a year-to-date basis at N1.101 trillion compared with N1.064 trillion for the full year of 2021, while the deposits from customers rose to N1.572 trillion from N1.554 trillion.