FCMB Group Plc has posted its first quarter results for the
2015 financial year, recording a four per cent growth in its profit before tax
(PBT) which stood at N5.8 billion compared to PBT of N5.6 billion which it made
in the first three months of 2014.
According to the Q1 result made available to the investing
public yesterday, loans and advances went up by 18 per cent year-on-year to
N582.2 billion from N493.7 billion in March 2014, just as total assets stood at
N1.19 trillion, up by 20 per cent compared to N992.4 billion in March 2014.
Customer deposits also rose by 11 per cent to N759.6 billion compared to N687.3
billion recorded in 2014.
Gross earnings grew by 16 per cent during the three-month
period from N33.81 billion in 2014 to N39.28 billion, while net interest income
rose by 8 per cent to N18.1 billion from N16.7 billion in the comparable period
of 2014. Operating expenses was up by six per cent to N16.5 billion, for the
three months ended March 2015, from N15.5 billion for the same period prior
year.
Commenting on the result, the managing director of the
group, MD-FCMB-Ladi-Balogun, noted that “the business environment in the first
quarter was subdued by the political activities and a degree of uncertainties
which have largely cleared out. The monetary stance remains tight with
inflation creeping up to 8.5 per cent as at the end of March; broad money
supply, MM2, annualised, contracted by 10.23 per cent.
“It is against this background that we report first quarter
growth in gross revenue and profit after tax of 16 and 9 per cent and, in
actual terms, N39.3 billion and N5.3 billion respectively. While return on
average equity fell by 2.1 per cent year-on-year, we expect this to recover in
the subsequent quarters based on strong capital and liquidity positions.”
On his own part, group managing director and chief executive
of FCMB Ltd, Mr Ladi Balogun, explained that the activities of the commercial
and retail banking group resulted in a 15 per cent year-on-year growth in
revenues, though profit after tax grew by a modest 4 per cent.
“This was partly due to a decline in non-interest income, as
a result of further reduction in our maximum COT rate to 0.1 per cent, low
government revenues which affected risk asset growth, as well as a generally
slow pre-election period,” he said, noting that customer deposits had grown
with “funding from individuals and small businesses which make up our retail
division now accounting for 53 per cent of total deposits and growing 32 per
cent year-on-year and 5 per cent quarter-on-quarter.”
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