United Capital plc, Nigeria’s investment banking firm, recently released its 2014 results growing total assets to N 95.29 billion as of December 31, 2014, up from the N79.48 billion reported in 2013, which is a growth of 20 percent.
Cash and cash equivalents made up 33 percent of the group’s assets, while financial assets made up 61 percent of total assets.
Shareholders’ funds as of the end of 2014 was N 9.31 billion and the company’s return on average equity (ROE) was 21 percent, highlighting continued value creation for shareholders.
The company generated gross earnings of N4.68 billion in 2014, up 2.3 percent from 2013. Total gross earnings were driven primarily by fee and commission income (39%) and investment Income (35%).
The company also grew net interest margin, which is income generated from funds under management by 103.08 percent.
Other income also grew 42.5 percent over its 2013 value and contributed 16.2 percent of total gross earnings.
The profitability of the company improved over 2013, culminating in profit after tax rising by 5 percent to close at N1.84 billion, up from N1.76 billion in 2013, and a strong profit margin of 39 percent.
This profitability level was achieved not withstanding that the company operates predominantly in the capital market space where the equity market in general posted a negative return of 16.1 percent.
However, operating expenses (Opex) increased by 18.6 percent from 2013 to close at N2.4 billion in 2014, as against N2.1billion in 2013.
The company’s management is confident of its ability to sweat the growth in assets to achieve greater profitability in future. Management’s current drive is for a reduction in cost to income ratio through income growth from all the businesses as well as the deployment of recently acquired IT infrastructure to drive efficiency.
The company continues to play a leading role across its areas of operations in Trusteeship, Investment Banking, Asset Management and Securities, and looks forward to expanding its scope of operations to comprehensively cover the entire investment life-cycle.
In the year under review, United Capital demonstrated its patriotism and strong commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) through significant support to the tune of N150 million in favour of the displaced victims of insurgency in the nation.
