Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, on Wednesday, released its audited full year 2016 group financial statements for the period ended December 31, 2016 together with directors’ and auditor’s reports.
The Tier-1 lender’s results at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) show gross earnings for the period grew by 37percent to N414.62billion, from N301.85billion reported in December 2015. The group interest income increased to N262.494 billion from N229.236 billion in 2015.
Fee and commission income declined to N51.273 billion from N51.865 billion in 2015. GTBank Plc profit before tax (PBT) stood at N165.14 billion, representing a growth of 37percent over N120.69 billion recorded in the corresponding period of December 2015. The groups after tax profit for the year 2016 rose to N132.280 billion from N99.436 billion in 2015.
The bank’s loan book grew by 16 percent, from N1.373 trillion recorded as at December 2015 to N1.590 trillion in December 2016 with corresponding growth in total deposits, which increased by 29 percent to N2.111 trillion from N1.637 trillion in December 2015.
GTBank proposes final dividend of 175 kobo per share in addition to interim dividend of 25kobo per unit of ordinary share, bringing total dividend for 2016 financial year to N2 per unit of ordinary share.
The bank’s balance sheet remained strong with a 19.7 percent growth in total assets and contingents as the Bank closed the year ended December 2016 with Total Assets and Contingents of N3.70trillion and shareholders’ funds of N504.9billion.
The bank’s non-performing loans remained low and within regulatory threshold at 3.66 percent (bank: 3.29percent) with adequate coverage of 131.79 percent (bank: 150.80percent).
Increase in collective impairment was borne out of the prudent stance of the Bank, while Capital remains strong with Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 19.79 percent. On the backdrop of this result, Return on Equity (ROAE) and Return on Assets (ROAA) closed at 35.96 percent and 5.85 percent respectively.
Segun Agbaje, Managing Director and CEO, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, while commenting on the results said, “the Bank’s financial performance in 2016, does not only reflect the resilience of our franchise, it demonstrates the fundamental strength of our businesses to deliver sustainable long-term growth. We successfully navigated the heightened economic uncertainty and regulatory headwinds which dominated the year to deliver a solid performance across all financial and non-financial indices.”
He assured, ‘’we are transforming our organization into a platform for enriching lives by positioning ourselves at the centre of an extended ecosystem that offers our stakeholders, benefits beyond banking. We also remain committed to maximising shareholders’ value and delivering superior and sustainable return, guided by our founding values of hard work, discipline and integrity.”
Despite the impressive results, share price of GTBank Plc lost 31kobo yesterday at the Nigerian stock exchange to close at N25.87.
“We would expect a muted to slightly negative reaction by the market to the results. A proposed final dividend of 175kobo implies a yield of 6.7percent. This dividend is higher than the 152kobo paid for 2015 (we had forecasted 152kobo for the 2016 final dividend).Our estimates are under review. We rate GTBank shares Neutral,” Olubunmi Asaolu team of research analysts at FBNQuest noted in their first reaction to the bank’s results.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
