Union Bank of Nigeria Plc in its unaudited results for the half year ended 30th June 2018, released on Wednesday says that its profit after tax within the review six month climbed 24.5% to N11.5 billion in contrast to the previous N9.3 billion reported same period last year.
The bank also stated that its gross earnings during the period rose from N72.1 billion in 2017 to N83.3 billion, driven by a 10 per cent increase in interest income and 37 per cent increase in non-interest income.
According to the bank, interest income grew from N56.6 billion in 2017 to N62.2 billion, just as net interest income before impairment went up from N30.1billion in 2017 to N34.4 billion in the review period.
The earnings per share consequently grew 24.5% from 32kobo to 39kobo in the corresponding period.
PE Ratio stood at 14.6x with about 6.8% earnings yield.
Commenting on the results, Emeka Emuwa, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer attributed the growth to efficiency and productivity drive.
“Across all our business lines, we witnessed strong underlying performance, translating into improved earnings.
“We will continue to focus on the recovery of non-performing loans.
“With the resolution in Q2 2018 of the large real estate exposure which was impaired in December 2017, the Group NPL ratio is down to 10.8 per cent from 14.9 per cent at March 31 2018 and 19.8 per cent at Dec. 31, 2017,” he said.
Mr Emuwa said the group would continue to demonstrate its ability to deliver strong results notwithstanding a competitive and challenging operating environment.
“In the second half of the year, we will continue to focus on productivity, leveraging our enhanced platform to deliver best-in-class services to our customers,” he said.
Mr Emuwa added that the bank would take advantage of targeted opportunities across its business lines and geographies.
Also, Oyinkan Adewale, the bank’s Chief Financial Officer, said the group’s retained earnings moved from negative to positive position for the first time since 2012.
She said this eliminated a major technical impediment to the payment of dividends.
Mrs Adewale said the group’s net interest margins improved from 7.9 per cent in the half year of 2017 to 8.2 per cent during the period under review.