Union Bank Posts N76bn Earnings, N19bn Profit in Six Months

Union Bank, one of Nigeria’s longest standing and most respected financial institutions, has announced its unaudited financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2019.

Union Bank of Nigeria Plc yesterday reported gross earnings of N76 billion for the half year ended June 30, 2019, showing a decline of nine per cent from N83.3 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2018. Net interest income after impairment charges rose three per cent from N29.7 billion to N30.5 billion, while not interest income went down 12 per cent to N18.7 billion, compared with 21.1 billion in 2018. Union Bank of Nigeria ended the H1 with profit before tax (PBT)of N18.7 billion, up four per cent from N11.7 billion in 2018.

Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Emeka Emuwa, said: “Notwithstanding the realities of operating in a challenging economic environment, the group delivered a four growth in PBT toN12.1 billion from N11.7 billion in H1 2018.

“To sustain growth in earnings, we remained steadfast in our commitment to delivering value and first-class customer experience to all our customers. We have developed a concerted and clear plan to increase our risk assets with our loan book growing by eight to N563.0 billion compared to year-end 2018.

“The ability to take on more risk is hinged on our robust risk management and debt recovery processes working in sync which led to recoveries of over N5 billion in the period.

“Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on opportunities to deliver our simpler, smarter banking promise to our customers while improving internal operational efficiencies which will translate to enhanced shareholder value.”

Also speaking, Chief Financial Officer, Joe Mbulu said:“In the first half of 2019, we continued with our expansion strategy to grow our agency banking footprint which in turn boosted customer confidence in our brand. Customer deposits have followed the same trajectory with a four per cent growth, to N889.5 billion as at June 2019 from N857.6 billion in December 2018.

With our aggressive focus on recoveries and improving asset quality, the Bank’s Nonperforming loan (NPL) ratio has continued its downward trend, declining to 7.3 per cent from 8.1 per cent as at December 2018 ahead of full year 2019 guidance. Improvement in asset quality has enabled us to grow our loan book optimally in the first half of 2019, positioning us with the ability to take on emerging opportunities in key sectors of the economy.