United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, one of the largest financial services groups in Africa with operations in 19 African countries and three global financial centres, has posted a profit of N16 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2012, surpassing the N15.1 billion profit forecast announced earlier in the year.
Details of the bank’s unaudited first quarter results released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday showed that the gross earnings increased by 33 per cent to N53.9 billion from N40.5 billion recorded in the Q1 of 2011.? Profit before tax grew by over 200 per cent to N16.1 billion compared to N4.8 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
In other details of the results, cost to income ratio dropped to 65 per cent from 77.7 per cent in 2011, as the benefits of the group’s Global Shared Service centre and other cost control measures kicked in.? With solid capital adequacy and liquidity ratios of 22.94 per cent and 57.02 per cent, UBA capped the Q1 performance on a strong note.
In a related development, UBA has also released its full year results and in line with the February profit warning, the bank recorded a loss of N10.5 billion principally due to one-off write-offs, including those arising from the transfer of loans to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). In spite of that, balance sheet growth in 2011 was quite impressive with total assets increasing to N1.94 trillion, a growth of 20 per cent from the N1.62 trillion achieved in 2010.