To further underscore its status as the most capitalised bank and third most capitalised company in Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Plc grew its pre-tax profit by 64 per cent to N50.4 billion in the first quarter of 2017.
This was contained in the highlights of the three-month interim report and accounts of GTB for the period ended March 31, 2017 recently released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). It showed that the bank continued to dominate the chart in all indices.
Gross earnings for the period grew by 39 per cent to N104.66 billion from N75.39 billion reported in March 2016; driven primarily by growth in interest income. Profit before tax stood at N50.39 billion, representing a growth of 64 per cent over N30.68 billion recorded in the corresponding period of March 2016. The bank’s loan to customers dipped marginally by two per cent from N1.591 trillion recorded in December 2016 to N1.563 trillion as at March 2017.
Deposit from customers grew marginally by one per cent from N1.986 trillion in December 2016 to N2.012 trillion in March 2017.
The report showed that the bank’s balance sheet remained strong with a 1.6 per cent growth in total assets as the bank closed the quarter ended March 2017 with total assets of N3.16 trillion and shareholders’ funds of N546.9 billion. The bank’s non-performing loans remained low and within regulatory threshold at 3.62 per cent with adequate coverage of 231.6 per cent. Capital remains strong with Capital Adequacy Ratio of 20.03 per cent. On the backdrop of this result, Return on Equity (ROAE) and Return on Assets (ROAA) closed at 31.55 per cent and 5.28 per cent respectively.
