UMORU ABDULKADIR
FBN Holdings Plc has declared N69.95 billion Profit in the fourth quarter representing a 16.46 per cent growth and an addition of N10.2 billion to N51.75 billion in the third quarter of 2019.
It announced this in its Q4 unaudited financial statement filed to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Thursday January 30, 2020 which further showed that its Interest income for three months, starting from October to December, 2019, stood at N113.2 billion to push the Interest income up from N327.5 billion in Q3 2019 to N440.6 in the just ended fourth quarter period, representing 25.68 per cent addition to Interest income between Q3 and Q4 2019.
Similarly, the lender grew its fee and commission income between Q3 and Q4, 2019 to N29.8 billion, representing 27.9 per cent growth in Fee & Commission Income from N76.8 billion in Q3 to N106.6 billion achieved at Q4, while it also increased the Fee and Commission Expenses by N6.3 billion or 31.6 per cent to the expense from N13.6 billion in September 2019, now to N19.9 billion in Q4 2019.
As part of efforts to meet the now March 31, 2020 deadline target set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country to increase their Loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) to 65 Per cent, the group grew its loan portfolio for the three months period by 3.07 per cent to expand the loan portfolio for the bank in full-year period to N1.88 trillion from N1.82 trillion recorded in September 2019, an indication that the lender gave out N57.7 billion as loans to customers within three months of October to December 2019.
Maintaining its status as customers’ choice bank with greater customers’ coverage throughout the country, it received a total sum of 333.6 billion as deposits from customers at for three months (Q4 2019), representing 8.3 per cent increase in Customers’ deposit received in three months. This increased deposits from the level it was in Q3 2019 of N3.7 trillion to N4.o trillion at the end of the financial year.
However, due to the rise in loans to customers, in a bid to meet the CBN LDR target, it also reduces its investments in securities by 3.74 per cent N54.2 billion from N1.50 trillion in Q3 to N1.45 trillion in Q4 2019. This indicates that within the last three of the year (October, November and December), the group cuts down on its investment securities by N54.2 billion or 3.74 per cent.
A further analysis of the unaudited financial statement showed that grew its Earnings Per Share (EPS) for three months (Q4 2019) alone by 27 kobo or 19.56 per cent to N1.65, from N1.38 reported in Q3 2019, indicating that the bottom-line performance in terms of returns on investors’ investments strengthened during the fourth quarter period.
Meanwhile, at the close trading on the floor of the Nigerian equity market on Friday, It exchanged 20.46 million shares worth N136.91 million across deals. Its shares price which opened trading at N6.95 on the day dipped 4 kobo to close at N6.55 per share.
Currently with 35,895,292,792 outstanding shares N235.1 billion market capitalisation at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, FBN Holdings Plc, is a leading diversified financial services group in Nigeria, offering a broad range of products and services across commercial banking in the country. It has First Bank Nigeria and FBN Insurance as its subsidiaries.
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