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The parent company of First Bank, FBN Holdings, released its 2016 half-year result on Tuesday, showing that after-tax profit fell by 10.5 per cent year-on-year for the period ended on June 30.

The company said its after-tax profit fell to N35.9 billion in H1 2016 compared with N40.1 billion recorded in a similar period of last year. Gross earnings also fell to N267.9 billion in H1 2016, a 1.3 per cent decline from N271.3 billion recorded in H1 2015.

FBN Holding’s half-year profit slightly exceeded analysts’ estimate of N35.7 billion, but the company’s gross earnings fell below analysts’ estimate of N313.8 billion, according to CardinalStone Partners, a Lagos-based investment advisory firm.

“FX income grew markedly by 212.7% to N52.9 billion largely due to revaluation gains on the bank's net open position following the Naira devaluation,” CardinalStone Partners said in a note to investors. “However, the impact of this super gains was significantly moderated by huge impairment losses of N57.2 billion recorded in Q2'16.”

In April, FBN Holdings reported that its after-tax profit for the 2015 full year fell by 82 per cent to N15.1 billion because of higher impairment losses, which rose 360 per cent to N119.3 billion.

For the period under review, FBN Holdings said basic earnings per share fell to 98 kobo per share as against N1.10 per share declared in a similar period of last year. The company’s share closed at N3.57 per share at the NSE on Tuesday, up 0.12 per cent from the previous day’s close.