By Dipo Olowookere
Another company has released its financial standing for the first quarter of 2020 and this time, it’s United Capital Plc.
The company said in the first three months of this year, its gross earnings increased to N1.9 billion from N1.5 billion in the same period of last year, while investment income decreased to N649.5 million from N771.7 million, majorly as a result of decline in fixed deposits and investments in securities.
United Capital further said it recorded a 55 percent improvement in fee and commission income, rising to N568.0 million from N365.6 million. The major reason for this growth was the N406.9 million generated from other fees and charges in the period under review compared with N232.4 million raked in the corresponding period of 2019.
The firm also said it had a net trading income of N78.4 million in the first quarter of this year, higher than N31.9 million in the same time of last year.
In addition, the net interest margin increased to N589.5 million from N182.7 million, while the net operating income increased to N1.9 billion from N1.4 billion.
Under other income, United Capital said it garnered N32.6 million in Q1 2020, lower than N101.8 million it generated in Q1 2019.
The decline in the other income was mainly as a result of reduction in dividend income (N28.9 million in Q1 2020 versus N84.0 million in Q1 2019) and drop in other income, which fell to N3.7 million from N17.8 million.
The earnings of United Capital analysed by Business Post showed that personnel expenses increased in the first three months of 2020 to N324.5 million from N246.4 million, while other operating expenses dropped to N378.2 million from N399.3 million, with total expenses at N742.6 million at Q1 2020 as against N684.4 million in Q1 2019.
The results revealed that the profit before tax stood at N1.2 billion in the period under review compared with N766.9 million in the same period of 2019.
And after a reduction of N185.1 million as tax, higher than N122.7 million in Q1 2019, United Capital was left with a profit after tax of N991.3 million as at March 31, 2020 in contrast to N644.2 million as at March 31, 2019.
