Union Bank of Nigeria Plc has announced its consolidated unaudited financial statements for the nine months that ended 30th September 2022.
NewsBeatng reports that the financial report shows that the bank’s profit before tax for the period under review rose by 14% to N18.2 billion compared to N15.9 billion in the same period last year.
In the same vein, profit after tax also rose by 14.2% to N17.3 billion from N15.2 billion in 2021. The bank explained that the growth in profits was supported by additional net interest income.
The gross earnings rose by 12.4% to N140.6 billion compared to N125.2 billion in the first nine months of 2021.
As a result of higher interest income, net operating income after impairments stood rose by 7.3% to N76.3 billion from N71.2 billion in the comparable period in 2021.
However, non-interest income was down by 32.7% to N28.3 billion compared to N42 billion during the same period in 2021. The decline was due to low recoveries.
Higher non-discretionary regulatory costs, software expenses and power costs caused a rise in operating expenses by 5.2% to N58.1billion from N55.2 billion in 9 months of 2021.
Customer deposits were up by 12.7% at N1.53 trillion from N1.36 trillion in December 2021 while the gross loan was up by 10% at N990.3 billion from N899.1 billion in December 2021.
Also, the bank’s Non-performing loans ratio was down 50bps at 4.2% compared to the 4.7% as of 9 months of 2021
Commenting on the financial result, Union Bank’s Chief Financial Officer, Joe Mbulu said “Notwithstanding our deposit book growth, our focus on optimizing our funding costs has started yielding results which have driven profitability from gross revenues to the bottom line, with higher net revenue from funds (after impairment) in the period.
“Interest Income grew by 37% to N109.3 billion as a result of higher earning assets while Non-Interest Income (NII) declined by 33% to N28.3bn compared to the prior year driven by a decline in recoveries by 64.5% (to N4.6 billion) during the period.
” We grew our loan book by 10% from N899.1 billion as of December 2021 to N990.1 billion as at the end of Q3 2022. Customer deposits increased by 12.7% to N1.5 trillion. Our non-performing loan ratio as of 9M 2022 was 4.2% while our coverage ratio remains robust at 143.2%.
“Operating Expenses grew by only 5% from N55.2 billion as of 9M 2021 to N58 billion due to inflationary pressures. Consequently, our cost-to-income ratio decreased from 77.6% to 76.1% as of September 2022. The bank remains adequately capitalized to pursue its growth ambitions with Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) at 15.3%.”
