Ecobank Transnational Inc. ("Ecobank" or “the Group”), parent company of independent pan-African banking group Ecobank reports its financial results for the three months ended 31 March 2015.
Highlights are as follows:
Financial highlights:
- Net revenue of US$534 million, up 2 percent from 2014
- Cost-income ratio of 62.7 percent , an improvement of 650 basis points from 2014
- Profit before tax of US$155 million, up 33 percent from the previous year
- Profit after tax from continuing operations of US$126 million, up 38 percent from the previous year
- Return on average equity of 19.3 percent compared to 14.4 percentin 2014
- Basic earnings per share of 0.50 US$ cents compared to 0.44 US$ cents in 2014
Balance sheet highlights:
- Net customer loans of US$11.6 billion, up US$67 million, or 1 percent from the previous year
- Customer deposits of US$15.6 billion, down US$840 million, or 5 percent from the previous year
- Tier 1 capital ratio under Basel I was 17.2 percent and total capital adequacy ratio of 19.4 percent
Business highlights:
- The three months ended 31 March 2015 (“ first quarter”) results were adversely impacted by the strengthening of the US dollar against our major functional currencies – the Naira, Cedi and West African and Central African CFA franc
- Our Domestic banking business performed well in what was a difficult operating landscape. It reported a profit before tax of US$5.8 million compared witha pre-tax loss of US$1.6 million in the previous year. The improvement reflected ongoing branch efficiencies and higher revenue generation
- Nigeria’s performance was resilient in the face of major headwinds. It increased profit before tax by US$34 million to US$65 million, improved its cost-income ratio to 59.7 percent versus 71.7 percent in the previous year, and delivered an ROE of 22.9 percent.
Commenting on these results, Albert Essien, Group Chief Executive Officer said: “For the first three months of 2015, we grew net profit by US$34 million or 37 percent to US$125 million from same period last year, while earnings per share increased 13 percent to 0.50 US$ cents. As expected, the first quarter was characterised by macroeconomic headwinds including a strengthening US dollar, which significantly appreciated against our major functional currencies - Naira, Cedi, and the West African and Central African CFA franc.
Despite the headwinds, our diversified pan-African business model continued to serve us well, with encouraging underlying performance in our line of businesses and geographies. We were pleased with our cost efficiency gains, which led to our cost-income ratio improving to 62.7 percent from 69.2 percent in 2014. Revenue growth was modest, given the seasonally low client-activity we see in the first quarter of the year and the currency translation impact we experienced.”
Essien concluded: “We maintained adequate levels of capital to support our business. Our total capital adequacy ratio was 19.4 per cent for the quarter versus 16.1 percent in the prior year. Overall, our results are reassuring in light of the challenging operating environment. We are deeply proud of the competitive advantage our platform provides and the work our dedicated staff continue to do for all our stakeholders
