Profits shrink a little

FBN Holdings Plc. on Monday posted 10 per cent drop in profit after tax for the third quarter ended 30 September 2015.

The company posted a profit after tax of N50.2 billion during the review period. This was against a profit after tax of N55.6 billion declared in the comparative period of 2014.

The report is contained in a statement issued by the company in Lagos to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Its profit before tax stood at N59.6 billion against N73.7 billion achieved in 2014, a decrease of 19.2 per cent. The company’s gross earnings appreciated by 16.9 per cent to N390 billion, in contrast with N333.6 billion achieved in the comparative period of 2014.

Its net interest income grew by 9.3 per cent to N192.9 billion, against N176.5 billion recorded in 2014.

The company’s non-performing loans stood at N94.9 billion, in contrast with N60.7 billion in 2014, an increase of 57 per cent.

Commenting on the results, Mr Bello Maccido, the Group’s Chief Executive Officer, said that “it has been a challenging year so far, with economy slowing down and credit conditions remaining adverse, thereby impacting the Group’s operating performance.”

Maccido said that the company would continue to manage cost of risk by strengthening its risk management processes while leveraging assets; adjusting pricing to higher default risks associated with a contracting economy.

According to him, nowhere has this process been more pronounced than in the oil and gas sector.

He said this was “to ensure we build a more efficient group structure that will benefit the Group’s need to deploy systems which increase profitability and efficiency while expanding revenue generation”.