UBN declares N93.44bn gross earnings in nine months

Lagos – Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc on Wednesday announced gross earnings of N93.44 billion for nine months ended Sept. 30, 2016.

This is contained in a statement issued by the bank and made available in Lagos.

The bank said that this was against N83.72 billion declared in the preceding period of 2015, indicating an increase 11.6 per cent.

The bank’s profit before tax stood at N13.28 billion compared with ₦9.56 billion posted in the preceding period of 2015.

Profit after tax stood at N13.01 billion in contrast with N9.34 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2015.

Similarly, its interest income increased to N70.96 billion from N66.907 billion in the preceding year, while total assets grew to N2.22 trillion from N1.05 trillion.

The bank’s total liabilities surged from N802.97 billion to N961.12 billion during the period under review.

However, its interest expense was down by 14 per cent to ₦22.8 billion compared with₦26.5billion in the comparative period of 2015.

Commenting on the result, Mr Emeka Emuwa, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, attributed to growth to cost effective strategies introduced by the company.

“Our core pre-tax profits are up 27 per cent to ₦12.4bn from N9.8bn during the same period in 2015, fuelled largely by interest income and our thriving retail business.

“We are encouraged by this performance which comes in the face of a recessionary environment, increased impairments and headwinds in our trade business due to scarcity of foreign exchange.

“Our steady effort to build a low cost, customer centric retail business over the past 18 months is demonstrating results and continues to win us a new, growing retail customer base,” Emuwa said.

He said that the bank would continue to focus on executing its strategy, defend loan book and adhere to prudent risk management principles to achieve desired growth.