Wema Bank Plc, today, announced its half year 2014 unaudited financial results, with a 266% increase in Profit Before Tax to N1.7 billion demonstrating the impact of efficiency gains achieved in the last 6 months.
Speaking in Lagos, Nigeria, Segun Oloketuyi, Managing Director/CEO of WEMA Bank Plc, said:
“We are pleased to announce that WEMA Bank continued to demonstrate strong improvements in profitability and balance sheet efficiency in the first half of 2014. Our Profit Before Tax leapt 266% to N1.7 billion and the Bank’s Net Interest Margin has improved to 7.7% reflecting a more efficient restructuring of our deposit mix in favour of cheaper funds. We continued the process of redeploying our resources into higher yielding assets with our loans to deposits ratio rising to 53%. Loans and advances to customers have also grown by 17% on our full year levels, with a corresponding drop in the Bank’s NPL ratio to 2.5% from 3.8% illustrating our improved ability to issue and monitor risk assets..
During the period, we secured trade lines from foreign correspondent banks and development finance institutions to support our trade finance, the real estate sector and SME lending.
Project LEAP, our strategic transformation agenda, has continued to provide WEMA Bank with efficiency gains, and we intend to maintain the pace of these improvements throughout the second half of 2014 putting us on course to produce better performance and commensurate returns to shareholders by the end of the year. The goal is to continue our organic expansion programme and establish presence in areas that have significant growth potential, to this end we have commenced extensive renovation in some existing locations in order to upgrade infrastructure and overall service experience. The Bank is also making significant investments in alternative channels and diversifying the Bank’s product offerings. With a continued focus on good corporate governance and improved risk management practices, we are well positioned to continue to increase our market share in the near term.”
Financial Highlights
Balance Sheet
- Total assets of N334.2 billion (N330.9 billion in December 2013; N322.7 billion in March 2014)
- Loans & Advances to customers of N115.5 billion (N98.6 billion in December 2013; N95.2 billion in March 2014)
- Customer deposits of N216.3 billion (N217.7 billion December 2013, N206.3 billion March 2014)
Income Statement
- Operating income of N12.5 billion, up 25% (N10 billion in June 2013)
- Net interest income of N9.7 billion, up 81% (N5.3 billion in June 2013)
- Non-interest revenue of N3.2 billion, down 17% (N3.8 billion in June 2013)
- Profit before tax of N1.7 billion, an increase 266% (Profit before tax of N464.7 million in June 2013)
Key Ratios
- Improved Cost to Income ratio of 86% (95% in December 2013)
- Rising Net Interest Margin: 7.7% (7.3% in December 2013)
- NPL Ratio: 2.5% (3.9% in December 2013)
- Liquidity Ratio: 47% (77% in December 2013)
- Capital Adequacy Ratio: 25% (27% in December 2013)
- Earnings Per Share: 8kobo