By Ishaya Ibrahim
Zenith Bank Plc has announced its audited results for the half year ended 30 June 2019, recording positive growth across key financial metrics.
The bank has proposed an interim dividend pay-out of 30 kobo per share.
Zenith bank’s result in the half year showed that its gross earnings grew by 3 per cent from ₦322.2 billion to ₦331.6. The bank said the growth was driven by a significant improvement of 24% (YoY) in non-interest income from ₦88.6 billion in H1 2018 to ₦109.7 billion in H1 2019.
The bank said fees from electronic products increased by ₦17bn (168%) from ₦10bn in H1 2018 to ₦27 in H1 2019, demonstrating significant progress in its retail banking initiatives.
According to the result, Profit Before Tax (PBT) increased to ₦111.7 billion reflecting a 4% growth over ₦107.4 billion reported in H1 2018. Earnings per share (EPS) increasing by 9% to ₦2.83 in H1 2019 from ₦2.60 compared to the prior period.
The group’s total deposit between December 2018 and June 2019 increased by 3 per cent with retail deposits growing by ₦267 billion (31%), from ₦861 billion to close at ₦1.1 trillion.
“Despite the growth in our deposit base, we optimized interest expense leading to a 4 per cent reduction from ₦74.7 billion to ₦72.1 billion due to the Group’s improved funding mix and our profound treasury management skills.
“Our robust risk management ensured that our absolute Gross Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) remained flat. However, the marginal movement in NPL ratio was as a result of the 3 per cent reduction in our loan book from ₦2.02 trillion as at December 2018 to ₦1.95 trillion at the end of the period.
“We are creatively deploying new retail loan products to ensure we capture a reasonable share of the retail loan market. We remain committed to maintaining our strong balance sheet with liquidity ratio at 74.6 per cent and Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) at 25 per cent, ensuring we remain above regulatory thresholds.
“Going into the second half of the year, we will continue to consolidate our leadership in the corporate space while our retail banking drive will continue unabated. We expect to see an improvement in economic activities even as we maintain our promise of delivering a unique service experience to our customers.
“Consistent with this superlative performance and in recognition of its track record of excellent performance, the bank was recently ranked as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria in 2018 by The Banker Magazine.
“Similarly, Zenith Bank was recognized as the Best Corporate Governance Bank in Nigeria by The World Finance for the sixth time just as Ethical Boardroom, a Europe based Boardroom watchdog reaffirmed this recognition by naming the bank as the Best Bank in Corporate Governance in 2018.
“Recognition has also come the way of the bank as it was recently named as the Best Institution in Sustainability Reporting in Africa 2018 (SERAS Awards) and the Bank of the Year 2018 (BusinessDay),” a statement from the bank reads.