Zenith Bank Plc has maintained its market dominance and leadership with its unaudited results for the period ended 30 September, 2019. From the unaudited account which was presented to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), gross earnings increased by 4% percent from N474,607 billion recorded in Q3 2018 to N491,268 billion in Q3 2019. Profit Before Tax (PBT) grew by 5% from N167,307billion in Q3 2018 to a record N176,183 billion in Q3 2019. Also, profit after tax rose by 5% from N144,179billion in Q3 2018 to N150,723 billion in Q3 2019.
Despite a challenging macro-economic backdrop, the Group recorded a significant growth in Non-Interest Income, expanding by 22 per cent from N128.7 billion in Q3 2018 to N156.8 billion for the current period. Zenith Bank platforms and channels have been the enablers of this growth, with fees from electronic products doubling to N35.3 billion from N17.6 billion in Q3 2018. Its cost optimisation strategies and aggressive retail banking drive are yielding the desired effects as cost-to-income ratio declined from 51.2 per cent in Q3 2018 to 50.1 per cent in Q3 2019 with Earnings Per Share (EPS) growing by 5% from N4.58 in Q3 2018 to N4.80 in Q3 2019.
The bank’s retail and corporate banking franchises continued its momentum with customers’ deposits growing by 7 per cent to N3.95 trillion from N3.69 trillion recorded as at December 2018, a reflection of increasing share of the industry’s deposits and customers’ confidence in the Zenith brand. These deposit acquisitions have directly contributed to the cost of funds improving from 3.3 per cent in Q3 2018 to 2.95 per cent as at Q3 2019. The bank has continued to deploy capital to creating viable risk assets with gross loans and advances growing by 9 per cent from N2.02 trillion as at December 2018 to N2.2 trillion as at Q3 2019 across both the retail and corporate segments. The focus remains the search for bankable lending opportunities to ensure the attainment of the minimum regulatory loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) of 65 per cent by December 31, 2019, without compromising our prudence.
Its robust risk management framework has ensured that non-performing loans (NPL) ratio declined from 4.98 per cent in December 2018 to 4.95 per cent in the current period. The bank’s commitment to maintaining a shock-proof balance sheet remains, with liquidity and capital adequacy ratios at 63.8 per cent and 23.8 per cent respectively, both above regulatory thresholds.
In this final quarter of the year, the bank will work to sustain its competitiveness and share of the market in the corporate segment and build upon its digital foundations to reinforce retail banking initiatives.
As a testament to the bank’s superlative performance and in recognition of its track record of excellent performance, the bank was recently named as the Bank of the Year and the Best Bank in Retail Banking at the 2019 BusinessDay Banks’ and Other Financial Institutions Awards (BAFI Awards).
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