FBN Holdings Plc saw its gross earnings for last year jump to N757.3 billion, 28.2 per cent higher than the figure recorded one year prior, while its net profit climbed by more than three-fifths according to its audited financial statement obtained on Thursday.
Late in coming, the release of the earnings report came nearly two months after the March 31 deadline, with management citing difficulty in completing the audit of one of the biggest subsidiaries of the group as the ground for the delay, making it the last of the thirteen lenders listed on the Nigerian Exchange to issue its audited financials.
The parent company of Nigeria’s oldest commercial bank FirstBank Limited achieved the feat even though interest income, its major earnings source, diminished by 4.1 per cent.
Fee and commission income rose 24.2 per cent to N140.6 billion, helping to soften the blow of depressed interest income on revenue.
But the major boost to both top-line and profit came from a mind-blowing surge in the amount of loan recovered, which ballooned by nearly twelvefold to N141 billion.
FBN Holdings highlighted the recovery of a written-off credit availed to Jide Omokore-backed Atlantic Energy Limited as the principal driver.
To cover loan facilities whose repayment has been made uncertain by repeated defaults, the lender made a provision N91.7 billion from its earnings for the year. That was nearly half of the cash it set aside for that purpose a year earlier.
Pre-tax profit came to N166.7 billion compared to the N83.7 billion reported for the 2020 financial year.
Profit for the year stood at N151.1 billion, 28.4 per cent higher than a year before.
Last Wednesday, FBN Holdings said it entered a pact with Access Bank Plc to acquire the latter’s pension unit, Access Pension Fund Custodian for an undisclosed fee in a deal aimed at consolidating the operation of its own pension subsidiary First Pension Custodian Limited.
The financial services group stated in the earnings report its board is proposing a dividend of N0.35 per share for the year, translating to a payout of N12.6 billion. That compares with the N0.45 paid a year earlier, summing up to N16.2 billion.
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