Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The solid risk management strategy deployed by the management of United Capital Plc led by its Managing Director, Mr Peter Ashade, has continued to yield the needed results.
This is because this framework helped the company grow its revenue in the first quarter of 2021 by 63 per cent to N3.1 billion from N1.9 billion.
This impressive growth was also boosted by a strong increase in the fee and commission income (N1.3 billion versus N568.0 million in Q1 2020), investment income (N1.6 billion versus N1.2 billion) and net trading income (N188.0 million versus N79.4 million).
In the period under review, the firm witnessed a rise in its total expenses to N1.2 billion from N742.6 million, with personnel expenses gulping N421.2 million, higher than N324.5 million in the corresponding quarter of last year, while other operating costs rose to N576.3 million from N378.2 million.
Also, the profit before tax jumped by 67 per cent to N2.0 billion from N1.2 billion, while the profit after tax increased by 70 per cent to N1.7 billion from N1.0 billion.
“I am pleased to inform all stakeholders that United Capital Plc has commenced the first quarter of the year from a stable position with remarkable earnings growth and strong performance across key financial parameters even as we continued to navigate the tough terrain which at the moment, points to a recovery in the domestic economy amid other improving global macroeconomic developments,” Mr Ashade said.
Speaking further, he said, “This performance empowers us to adopt a positive outlook on the remaining part of the year 2021 as the operating environment improves supported by fiscal stimulus programmes, easing of restrictions on business operations, reopening of international and domestic travels, resumption of wholesale and retail trading activities as well as the rebound in oil prices.
“We have continued to drive our strategy as we continue to push further our market diversification and cost-optimization initiatives, as well as implement, phased automation of our business processes whilst upholding our commitment to ensuring a significant improvement in our value delivery to all our stakeholders.
“With our well-articulated plans and solid risk management framework, we were able to deliver increased revenue, increased PBT and PAT increase.”
