Guaranty Trust Bank Plc has recorded N109.7bn profit before tax for the half-year ended June 30, 2020.
This represented a 5.2 per cent decrease over N115.8bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2019.
According to the bank’s audited financial results presented to both the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange, the financial statement reflects the bank’s leading position as one of the best managed financial institutions in Africa.
GTBank‘s loan book grew by 8.1 per cent from ₦1.502tn recorded as at December 2019 to ₦1.624tn in June 2020 and customer deposits increased by 18.5 per cent to ₦3.001tn from ₦2.533tn in December 2019.
The bank closed the half-year ended June 2020 with total assets of ₦4.511tn and shareholders’ funds of ₦720.9bn.
In terms of asset quality, its non-performing loan ratio and cost of risk closed at 6.8 per cent and 0.4 per cent in June 2020 from 6.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent in December 2019, respectively.
Overall, asset quality remains stable with adequate coverage of 118.1 per cent, while capital remains strong with 22.9 per cent. On the backdrop of this result, return on equity and return on assets stood at 26.8 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively.
The bank is proposing an interim dividend of 30 kobo per ordinary share of 50 kobo each for the period ended June 30, 2020.
Commenting on the financial results, the Chief Executive Officer of GTBank, Segun Agbaje, said, These are undoubtedly tough and trying times for people, businesses and economies the world over.
“Our financial performance in the first half of the year reflects the quality of our past decisions which have broadened our earnings and strategically positioned us to thrive, thus far, through the current global health and economic crises.”
Continuing, he explained, “Underpinning this financial performance is our commitment to being there for our customers and the communities we serve, and over the past six months we have lent the full weight of our franchise to safeguarding lives and livelihoods of our staff and customers by leading from the front in the fight to curtail the COVID-19 outbreak and offering grace periods on loans to our small business customers.”
GTBank has continued to report the best financial ratios for a financial institution with ROE of 26.8 per cent and cost to income ratio of 43.2 per cent.
