GTCO grows HI pre-tax profit to N103.2bn

BY EMEKA EJERE

Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) has defied headwinds to post a profit before tax of N103.2 billion in its half-year (H1) 2022 operations, which is a modest improvement on N93.1 billion achieved in the corresponding period in 2021.

According to the Bank’s unaudited half-year financials submitted to the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX), its performance for the period ended June 30, 2022 showed a PBT of N103.2 billion, representing an 11 per cent increase over N93.1 billion recorded in 2021.

The Group’s loan book (net) increased by 1.8 per cent from N1.8 trillion recorded as at December 2021 to N1.83 trillion in June 2022, while deposit liabilities also rose from N4.13 trillion in December 2021 to N4.39 trillion, representing a growth of 6.4 per cent.

GTCO’s balance sheet remained strong with total assets and shareholders’ funds closing at N5.7 trillion and N845.7 billion respectively.

Group Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Segun Agbaje, said the results showed an increase in key revenue lines and strong performance in other financial metrics, which reinforce the bank’s growth prospects as a leading financial services company.

“Our priority at the start of the 2022 financial year was to bring the group’s new businesses on stream, starting strong with a focus on long-term viability. At present, we have successfully expanded our financial services ecosystem to include HabariPay Ltd, Guaranty Trust Fund Managers Ltd, and Guaranty Trust Pension Managers Ltd and all of them are profit and loss (P&L) positive.”

He said these newly created businesses will operate alongside the flagship banking franchise to offer increased value to its growing customer base as well as other stakeholders.

According to him, a bank will continue to build on its core strengths of service excellence, innovation, and flawless execution to deliver its corporate objectives for the year, as well as the vision of being Africa’s leading financial services institution.”

He added: “Overall, the group continues to post one of the best metrics in the Nigerian financial services industry in terms of key financial ratios in Pre-Tax Return on Equity (ROAE) of 23.9 per cent, Pre-Tax Return on Assets (ROAA) of 3.7 per cent, Full Impact Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 22.0 per cent and Cost to Income ratio of 49.1 per cent.”

GTCO Plc is a fully-fledged financial services group with banking operations across West and East Africa and the United Kingdom as well as non-banking businesses in several key industry segments including payment, funds management and pension fund management.

With N5.7 trillion in assets and over 28 million customers, the group remains one of the most profitable and best-managed financial services companies in Nigeria providing commercial banking services and non-banking financial services across eleven countries.