GTB declares N53.4bn half-year pretax profit

Guaranty Trust Bank plc has declared a profit before tax of N53.4bn for the first half of 2014.

The bank’s audited financial results for the half year ended June 30, 2014, which it file with the Nigerian and London Stock Exchanges on Thursday, showed that it recorded growth across major indices.

In the review period, GTB grew its gross earnings by seven per cent to N132bn from the N124bn it osted for the corresponding period of 2013.

It profit before tax, however, dipped by seven per cent to N53.4bn from N57.4bn in the same period of the previous year.

The bank, which had explained in a statement on Wednesday that it faced extremely challenging business environment and increasing regulatory headwinds in the period, explained that the drop in PBT was due to loan impairment charged to the profit and loss account during the period.

“This impairment charge was as a result of a significant loan that we decided to provide for following the demise of the obligor; in line with our laid down corporate governance practices,” the statement read in part.

The half-year results showed that GTB grew its loan book by 16 per cent from the N899bn recorded in the six-month period ended June 30, 2013 to N1.04tn in June 2014, while total customer deposits increased by eight per cent to N1.54tn in the review period.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, GTB, Mr. Segun Agbaje, attributed the bank’s performance for the period to the hard work of its staff, commitment of its management team and more importantly, continued support from its customers.

Agbaje, however, expressed optimism that the second half of the 2014 financial year would be more positive.

This, he explained, was because the bank was expected to make positive improvements in its market positions across its key products and business segments.

According to him, a major objective of the bank in the 2014 financial year is to offer its customers greater convenience and accessibility to its services using internet and mobile solutions.

“We have, to date, achieved over a million downloads of our mobile banking app and experienced a 25 per cent increase in active Internet banking users,”Agbaje disclosed.

The statement explained that the bank had always been at the forefront of industry service innovations within markets wherein it operates, having successfully replicated its culture for excellence in banking subsidiaries in Cote D’ Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the United Kingdom.

According to it, recent services introduced include; the GTBank SME MarketHub, an online e-commerce platform.