FINANCE

Zenith Bank maintains Africa’s financial lead in half year results

&NewLine;<p>In a clear&NewLine;demonstration of its resilience and strong market share&comma; Zenith Bank Plc has announced its audited results for the half year ended&NewLine;30 June 2019&comma; recording positive growth across key financial metrics&comma; thus&NewLine;affirming the bank’s position as one of the leading financial institutions in&NewLine;Africa&period;&nbsp&semi; As a testament to its commitment&NewLine;to its shareholders&comma; the bankalso announced a proposed interim dividend pay-out&NewLine;of 30 kobo per share&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Gross earnings&NewLine;grew by 3&percnt; from ₦322&period;2&NewLine;billion to ₦331&period;6&NewLine;billion driven by a significant growth of 24&percnt; &lpar;YoY&rpar; in non-interest income from&NewLine;₦88&period;6 billion&NewLine;in H1 2018 to ₦109&period;7&NewLine;billion in H1 2019&period; In particular&comma; fees from electronic products increased by ₦17bn &lpar;168&percnt;&rpar; from ₦10bn in H1 2018 to ₦27 in H1 2019&comma; demonstrating&NewLine;significant progress in our retail banking initiatives&period; This top-line growth&NewLine;filtered through to the bottom-line as Profit Before Tax &lpar;PBT&rpar; increased to ₦111&period;7 billion reflecting a 4&percnt;&NewLine;growth over ₦107&period;4&NewLine;billion reported in H1 2018 with earnings per share &lpar;EPS&rpar; increasing by 9&percnt; to ₦2&period;83 in H1 2019 from ₦2&period;60 compared to the prior&NewLine;period&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Between&NewLine;December 2018 and June 2019&comma; the Group’s total deposit increased by 3&percnt; with&NewLine;retail deposits growing by ₦267&NewLine;billion &lpar;31&percnt;&rpar;&comma; from ₦861&NewLine;billion to close at ₦1&period;1&NewLine;trillion&period; Despite the growth in our deposit base&comma; we optimized interest expense&NewLine;leading to a 4&percnt; reduction from ₦74&period;7&NewLine;billion to ₦72&period;1&NewLine;billion due to the Group’s&NewLine;improved funding mix and our profound treasury management skills&period; Net Interest&NewLine;Margins &lpar;NIMs&rpar; witnessed a compression from 10&percnt; in the same period last year to&NewLine;8&period;6&percnt; in H1 2019&comma; as a result of the declining yield environment but cost of&NewLine;funds improved from 3&period;4&percnt; to 3&period;0&percnt;&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Our robust&NewLine;risk management ensured that our absolute Gross Non-Performing Loans &lpar;NPLs&rpar;&NewLine;remained flat&period; However&comma; the marginal movement in NPL ratio was as a result of&NewLine;the 3&percnt; reduction in our loan book from ₦2&period;02 trillion as at December 2018 to ₦1&period;95 trillion at the end of the&NewLine;period&period; We are creatively deploying new retail loan products to ensure we&NewLine;capture a reasonable share of the retail loan market&period; We remain committed to maintaining&NewLine;our strong balance sheet with liquidity ratio at 74&period;6&percnt; and Capital Adequacy&NewLine;Ratio &lpar;CAR&rpar; at 25&percnt;&comma; ensuring we remain above regulatory thresholds&period;&nbsp&semi; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Going into the&NewLine;second half of the year&comma; we will continue to consolidate our leadership in the&NewLine;corporate space while our retail banking drive will continue unabated&period; We&NewLine;expect to see an improvement in economic activities even as we maintain our&NewLine;promise of delivering a unique service experience to our customers&period;&nbsp&semi; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Consistent&NewLine;with this superlative performance and in recognition of its track record of&NewLine;excellent performance&comma; the bank was recently ranked as the Most Valuable&NewLine;Banking Brand in Nigeria in 2018 by The Banker Magazine&period; Similarly&comma; Zenith Bank&NewLine;was recognized as the Best Corporate Governance Bank in Nigeria by The World&NewLine;Finance for the sixth time just as Ethical Boardroom&comma; a Europe based Boardroom&NewLine;watchdog reaffirmed this recognition by naming the bank as the Best Bank in&NewLine;Corporate Governance in 2018&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Recognition&NewLine;has also come the way of the bank as BusinessDay recently named it the Best&NewLine;Institution in Sustainability Reporting in Africa 2018 &lpar;SERAS Awards&rpar; and the&NewLine;Bank of the Year 2018 &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Openlife Reporter

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