GTBank has posted a 9.1 per cent increase in its pretax profit to ₦215.6billion in 2018 financial year, compared to ₦197.7billion recorded in the previous year.
The audited financial results for the year ended December 31, 2018 to the Nigerian and London Stock Exchanges, showed that the bank gross earnings grew by 3.7 per cent to ₦434.7billion from ₦419.2billion reported in the December 2017.
The Bank’s customer deposits increased by 10.3 per cent to ₦2.274trillion from ₦2.062trillion in December 2017, however, loan book dipped by 12.9 per cent from ₦1.449trillion recorded as at December 2017 to ₦1.262trillion in December 2018.
In view of the above, the Bank closed the 2018 financial year with Total Assets of ₦3.287trillion and Shareholders’ Funds of ₦575.6Billion.
In terms of Assets quality, NPL ratio and Cost of Risk improved to 7.3 per cent and 0.3 per cent in December 2018 from 7.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent in December 2017 respectively.
In addition, coverage ratio for NPL stood at 105.1 per cent and Capital adequacy ratio remained very strong, closing at 23.4 per cent despite the implementation of IFRS 9. On the backdrop of this result, Post Tax Return on Equity (ROAE) and Return on Assets (ROAA) closed at 30.9 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively.
The Bank is proposing final dividend of ₦2.45k per unit of ordinary share held by shareholders in addition to interim dividend of 30k per unit of ordinary share bringing total dividend for 2018 financial year to ₦2.75k per unit of ordinary share.
Commenting on the financial results, the Managing Director/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank plc, Segun Agbaje, said; “In 2018, our focus on staying nimble, strengthening customer relationships and driving our digital-first strategy paid off. We successfully navigated the pressures of our challenging and radically changing business environment, recorded growth across key financial indices and reaffirmed our position as one of the best performing and well managed financial institutions in Africa.
He further stated that; ‘This result reflects, not just the fundamental strength of our brand, but also our commitment to our values of excellence, creating value for all stakeholders and putting our customers first in everything that we do. Driven by these values, we are building the bank of the future by pairing the best of our business with the massive potential of digital technologies to create Africa’s first integrated and trusted platform; Habari.
GTBank has continued to report the best financial ratios in terms of profitability, efficiency and capital for a Financial Institution in Nigeria as revealed by its return on equity (ROAE) of 30.9 per cent, cost to income ratio of 37.1 per cent and capital adequacy of 23.4 per cent.
