Fidelity Bank’s third quarter earnings rise to N107 billion

Fidelity Bank Plc has released its third quarter result for the period ended September 30, 2015 posting an increase of 11.0 percent and 1.8 percent in its gross earnings and profit respectively. Gross earnings grew from N96.0 billion in the nine month period to N106.6billion in the third quarter of 2015. Profit after Tax (PAT) went up by 1.8 percent to N11.4 billion as against N11.2 billion made in the comparable period of last year. While total equity increased by 4.2 percent to N180.3 billion from N173.1billion as at December 2014, operating income stood at N62.0 billion, a 9.7 percent rise compared to N56.5 billion in the nine month period.
Commenting on the result in a statement sent to Sundiata Post and signed by Henry Ndiulo, head of communications, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo stated that business operations during the period under review were constrained by regulatory and economic pressures arising from currency devaluation concerns, tight monetary stance, and implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA). This situation, Okonkwo explained, had culminated in negative earnings in the banking sector. He however, expressed great optimism in the new business model which the Bank adopted and which resulted in a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in both fund and fee based income resulting in a 3 percent growth in profitability . “Despite these challenges we continued with the disciplined execution of our medium term strategy. Profit before Tax (PBT) increased to N13.8bn despite the decline in our total assets due to the TSA implementation”.
Interestingly, net interest income increased by 10.8 percent y-o-y to N40.6 billion but declined by 4.8 percent q-o-q due to the reduction in its earning assets. Okonkwo, however pointed out that the bank continued to increase yields on earning assets faster than growth in funding costs, which improved its NIM (Net Interest Margin) to 6.9 percent in third quarter of 2015. This growth put the bank in pole position to attain its 2015 target of 7.0 percent.