United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) released its nine months
financial results today, showing a significant 26.7% growth in loan portfolio,
as the bank positions to take advantage of emerging opportunities in Nigeria’s
fast growing economy.
The nine months results
put the bank’s new loan portfolio position at N870.4 billion as at September
2013, representing a 26.7% increase on N687.4 billion on the bank’s loan
portfolio for full year of 2012.
Explaining the significant growth in the Group’s loan portfolio,
Phillips Oduoza, Group Managing Director, said the growth was “In line with our
guidance for loan growth. We increased our exposure to the power,
upstream oil and gas and telecoms sectors of the economy”.
UBA played actively in the financing of big ticket deals,
especially in the power sector recently, with potential long term impact on the
bank’s future profitability. Some of the major deals UBA actively
participated in include taking up $120m (N19.44bn) of the financing in respect
of Transcorp Ughelli Power Plant.
The bank also acted as Mandated Lead Arranger, underwriting the
entire facility of $122m (N20bn) for Kann Utilities’ acquisition of the Abuja
Electricity Distribution Company, financing the payment of 75% acquisition of
60% equity stake in Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company while the bank
also threw its financial weight behind Aura Energy for the
Acquisition of Jos Electricity Distribution Company, acting as the lead
arranger for N9.6 billion loan to finance the payment of 75% of Aura’s 60%
equity stake in Jos Electricity Distribution Company.
“We firmly believe that
the effect of the asset creation decisions we have taken this quarter will have
a sustained impact on our revenue growth” Oduoza explained in a statement
from the bank.
The impact on revenues is already being seen as the bank
announced gross earnings of N188 billion, representing 12.5% increase from
N167.1 billion in the same period of last year while riding on the back of the
expansion in loan book, interest income rose 18.8% to N133 billion from N112
billion.
Oduoza says the “Results for the quarter reflect strong
contributions from UBA’s Corporate Banking as shown in the increase in interest
income generated from loan growth from Corporate Banking Division and from
African Commercial Banking Groups”
Also customer confidence in the Group’s brand continues to soar
as total deposits rose 22.1% to N2.17 trillion.
Explaining the significant increase in deposits, Ugochukwu
Nwaghodoh, Chief Finance Officer of the UBA Group said, “The bank was able to
effectively leverage its branch network in Nigeria and across eighteen
countries in Africa to generate cheap deposit”
The bank is already seeing some of the benefits of its
positioning with a significant 28.5% increase in total comprehensive income for
the period to N48.74billion, compared with N37.92billion in the same period of
last year.
A profit of N43.4billion was achieved for the period,
representing an increase of 2.8% over the N42.2billion recorded in the
corresponding period of last year.
There was also significant increase in other key performance
indicators with total assets rising by 13.5% to N2.58 trillion from N2.27
trillion while total equity rose 17.2% to N225.6 billion from N192.5billion.
“Our bank remains resilient and our focus is on delivering a set
of full year results that will be able to adequately reward our shareholders.
We are already reaping the benefits of operating an African strategy that is
anchored on our in-depth knowledge of every market we operate in”. Oduoza said.
Oduoza also assured that
UBA remains focused and committed to achieving set targets for 2013
“especially, our long term aspirations of being the leading financial services
institution in Africa”, explaining that “Project Alpha”, which details UBA’s
strategic intent to take advantage of Africa’s fast growing economy to boost
the bank’s growth, “ is beginning to bear the expected results as we are now
reaping the benefits of delivering an improved customer experience and improved
electronic banking platform to our various customer segments”.
United Bank for Africa
(UBA) is Africa’s global bank with operations in 19 African countries
including Nigeria, as well as offices in New York, London and
Paris providing broad-based banking services to over seven (7) million
customers. The Group offers a bouquet of banking services and products
designed to meet the specific banking needs of its diverse multi-cultural and
multi-lingual customer base in three uniquely different continents
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