Zenith Bank post-tax profit grows 4.54% to N150.72bn in nine months

Zenith Bank Plc Profit After Tax (PAT) was up 4.54 per cent to N150.72 per cent in nine months of 2019, and Profit Before Tax (PBT) grew by 5.31 per cent from N167.31 billion in Q3 2018 to N176.18 billion in Q3 2019, its unaudited results for the period ended 30 September 2019 sent to Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has shown.
The bank’s gross earnings increased by 3.51 per cent to N491.27 billion from N474,607 billion recorded in Q3 2018 in Q3 2019, driven by fee and commission income and net trading income, which rose 19.09 per cent and 26.30 per cent respectively.
This was despite -5.05 per cent dip in interest income to N321.94 billion during this period, dragged down loans and advances to customers, which declined -18.16 per cent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, Zenith Bank succeeded to cut down interest expenses -2.93 per cent to N107.31 billion from N110.55 billion in Q3 2018, while other operating expenses declined -6.59 per cent to N102.68 billion in Q3 2019, compared to N109.93 billion in the same period last year.
The commercial lender was able to give out 11.96 per cent more loans and advances to customers worth N2.04 trillion year-on-year as its total assets grew 6.42 per cent to N5.98 trillion.
It was able to muster 20.65 per cent more deposits to the turn of N3.95 trillion in Q3 2019 as Zenith Bank total liabilities increased 5.51 per cent to N5.11 trillion during this period.
The bank made 27.37 per cent higher provisions for its credits which went bad, amounting to N18.26 billion instead of the N14.34 billion it provided for in Q3 2018.
It was able to cut cost-to-income ratio down from 51.2 per cent in Q3 2018 to 50.1 per cent in Q3 2019, but grew Earnings Per Share (EPS) by 5 per cent from N4.58 in Q3 2018 to N4.80 in Q3 2019.