Ecobank’s nine-month profit up 847% despite slight earnings growth

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) posted, for the nine-month period to September, a profit after tax more than eight times higher than the figure it reported a year earlier, the Lome-based lender said on Monday.

That it achieved even though gross earnings expanded by as little as 4.4 per cent $1.7 billion, according to data from the bank’s audited financial statements published by the Nigerian Exchange and seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

The two key earnings sources – interest income and fees & commission income – saw mild improvement with the former growing by 4 per cent and the latter 17 per cent.

ETI, which operates within four geographical regions on the continent: Francophone West Africa (UEMOA); Nigeria; Anglophone West Africa (AWA) and Central, Eastern and Southern Africa (CESA), flagged its UEMOA unit as the biggest contributor to topline.

Growth in its Nigerian and AWA operations helped avert what would have been a slide in its loan portfolio, cushioning the impact of decreased credit within UEMOA and CESA.

Pre-tax profit and goodwill impairment stood at $352.2 million, compared to the $250.2 of the corresponding period of last year.

After-tax profit was $256.2 million, a stark contrast to the $27.063 million reported a year earlier when the bottom line took a hit from a goodwill impairment of $159.4 million.

The stock has returned 35.59 per cent in Lagos in the past one year.

“Our cost-to-income ratio has been declining consistently quarter on quarter, currently 58.3 per cent,” Group CEO Ade Adeyemi said in a separate document.

“The stock of nonperforming loans as a percentage of loans outstanding is now at 6.9 per cent compared to 9.9 per cent a year ago.”

Deloitte, the auditor, noted a rise in total loan impairment from $558 million at the end of last year to $595 million at 30th September as a key audit matter.

Shares in ETI closed trade in Lagos at N8 per unit, not recording any shift.