Access Bank's profit rises by 11.6 percent to N62.9 billion

23 Oct 2018
Financial Nigeria

Summary

The bank's gross earnings also rose by 2.7 percent to N374.9 billion.

Herbert Wigwe, Group Managing Director/CEO, Access Bank Plc

Access Bank Plc, one of Nigeria's largest banks, said on Tuesday that its after-tax profit for the nine-month period that ended 30 September, 2018 rose 11.6 percent year-on-year (YoY) to N62.9 billion from N56.4 billion reported in a similar period in 2017. The bank's gross earnings also rose by 2.7 percent to N374.9 billion, per the bank's consolidated financial statements for the period, which was released at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). 

The bank's latest financial statements also show that the increase in after-tax profit, despite a decline in profit before taxes, was due to a lower effective tax rate of 10.5 percent in the reporting period, compared to 22.6 percent tax rate in the same period last year. 

On a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, Access Bank's after-tax profit grew at a faster rate of 33 percent, supported by growth in non-interest income and a decline in impairment charges during the quarter between June and September 2018.

Access Bank's topline growth as well as bottomline growth were in line with projections by analysts at CardinalStone Partners, a Lagos-based investment advisory firm.

"We think Access Bank’s Q3 performance is decent as the bank was able to bring down its cost of funds during the period (Q3’18—5.6%; Q2’18—5.8%)," CardinalStone said in a brief report issued to investors. "We also like the fact that the bank was able to grow loans (3.7% QtD) during the quarter in contrast to prevailing industry trend."

Although the bank's net loans to customers declined by 1 percent in the nine-month reporting period to N2 trillion, deposits from customers and total assets improved by 10.2 percent and 11 percent to N2.5 trillion and N4.6 trillion, respectively. Cumulative loan loss charges for the year declined by 34.9 percent, compared to a similar period in 2017.

On a QoQ basis, interest income fell 3.6 percent to N87.8 billion, while non-interest income grew by 41.7 percent to N34.3 billion, supported by the N4.2 billion in foreign exchange revaluation gains recorded during the quarter (compared to FX revaluation loss of N27.0 billion recorded in Q2'18).

As at 1.00pm on Tuesday, Access Bank’s stock was trading N8 per share on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), down 3.61% from its previous day’s close of N8.3 per share.


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