Unity Bank PLC has released its H1 2019 results on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the half year ended June 2019.

The Bank recorded a growth in profitability by over 96% as its profit before tax stood at N1.052bn as against N536m in H1 2018.

A review of the Bank’s performance also shows significant improvements across key financial metrics such as the earnings assets and gross loans. The Bank recorded a quantum leap in its earning assets by 62% thus leading to higher income and grew its gross loans by 456%. This increase was also boosted by an increase in investment securities (holdings of Treasury Bills and Bonds) which led to a 23% growth in interest income.

Similarly, in the period under review, gross earnings grew by 17%, while operating expenses reduced by ~20%.  Earnings per share improved by 66% to 17.99kobo for the period ended June 30, 2019 compared to 10.86kobo in FY 2018; with PBT Margin, Net Assets per share and ROA improving by 1.3%, 0.2% and 0.2% respectively.

This performance is supported by the bank’s effort to improve asset utilization which reduced the need for asset acquisition, thus translating to lower depreciation and amortization expenses, with this cost declining by 27% from the comparative period of 2018.

The Bank also increased its focus on its Agribusiness through its partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Further strategic initiatives adopted by the bank include the implementation of various staff optimization strategies which led to marginal decline of 6% in personnel costs. Staff allocation was also better streamlined to leverage capacity for improved productivity.

Commenting on the result, the Managing Director/CEO, Mrs. Tomi Somefun said: “The Bank has started to reap from its multiple streams of income which include asset creation, investments and trade activities amongst others.”

She further stated that the Bank’s increasing focus on its areas of strength- Agribusiness and retail, its automation of more processes with the aim of cutting off wasteful expenditure and constant improvement of service delivery through the use of internally developed solutions saved the Bank huge sums in cost.

Analysts are of the view that with continuous efforts to reposition the bank and seize growing opportunities in Agribusiness as bullwalk to diversify earnings base in the retail market, we see brighter prospects for the bank in the years ahead.