FBN Holdings Plc. (“FBNH” or “FBNHoldings” or the “Group”) has announces its unaudited results for the six months ended30 June 2018.

Income Statement                                                                    

• Gross earnings of N3billion, up1.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) (Jun 2017: N288.8 billion)
• Net-interest income of N6billion, down 8.8% y-o-y (Jun 2017: N164.1 billion)
• Non-interest income of N3billion, up 21.4% y-o-y (Jun 2017: N50.5billion)
• Operating income of N9billion, down1.6% y-o-y (Jun2017: N214.4billion)
• Impairment charge for credit losses of N8 billion, down 15.4% y-o-y(Jun2017: N62.4 billion)
• Operating expenses of N3billion, up2.3% y-o-y (Jun2017: N116.6billion)
• Profit before tax of N9billion, up9.1% y-o-y (Jun 2017: N35.6billion)
• Profit after tax N5 billion, up13.7% y-o-y (Jun2017: N29.5 billion)

Statement of Financial Position

• Total assets of N3 trillion, up 1.3% year-to-date (y-t-d)(Dec 2017: N5.2 trillion)
• Customer deposits of N3trillion, up4.1% y-t-d (Dec 2017: N3.1 trillion)
• Customer loans and advances (net) of N9trillion, down 7.1% y-t-d(Dec 2017: N2.0 trillion)

Key Ratios

• Post-tax return on average equity of 10.0% (Jun 2017: 9.9%)[1]^,[2]
• Post-tax return on average assets of 1.3% (Jun 2017: 1.2%)
• Net-interest margin of 7.1% (Jun 2017: 8.5%)
• Cost to income ratio of 56.5% (Jun2017: 54.4%)
• NPL ratio of 20.8%(Jun2017: 22.0%)
• 0% liquidity ratio (FirstBank (Nigeria)) (Jun 2017: 50.4%; Dec 2017: 51.1%)
• 1% Basel 2 capitaladequacy ratio (FirstBank (Nigeria)) (Jun 2017: 17.6%, Dec 2017: 17.7%)
• 6% Basel 2 CAR (FBNQuest Merchant Bank) (Jun 2017: 26.7%, Dec 2017: 15.7%)

Notable Developments

• FirstBank indicated its intention to call the 8.25% US$300million FBN Finance Company B.V. Subordinated callable note due in 2020
• FirstBank openeda digital laboratory as part of its strategy to drive innovation in the digital banking space
• FirstBank commissions a strong initiative to implement enterprise-wide Customer Relationship Management solution to drive service excellence and improve customer experience

 Selected Financial Summary

Commenting on the results, UK Eke, the Group Managing Director said: “FBNHoldings continues to make steady progress towards delivering on its strategic targets. This has been demonstrated with a 13.7% y-o-y increase in profit after tax, 21.4% y-o-y growth in non-interest and 15.4% y-o-y decline in impairment charge. Clearly, the Group is on its way to delivering its promises on asset quality, enhancing revenue generating capacity through non-interest income and driving further efficiencies.”

“As we ramp up initiatives to grow interest income, we remain focused on the implementation of key initiatives across our subsidiaries and further strengthen our businesses towards delivering sustainable performance as well as optimising returns to our shareholders.”

 Business Groups

 Commercial Banking

• Gross earnings of N7billion, up1.4% y-o-y(Jun 2017: N261.0billion)
• Net interest income of N8billion, down 9.8% y-o-y (Jun2017: N156.0billion)
• Non-interest income of N6billion, up 28.5% y-o-y (Jun2017: N38.6billion)
• Operating expenses of N3billion, up 0.9% y-o-y (Jun2017: N104.4 billion)
• Profit before tax of N3billion, up16.2% y-o-y (Jun2017: N27.8billion)
• Profit after tax of N3 billion, up22.7% y-o-y (Jun2017: N23.0 billion)
• Total assets of N1trillion, up 0.9% y-t-d (Dec 2017: N5.0trillion)
• Customers’ loans and advances (net) of N9trillion, down 7.2% y-t-d(Dec 2017: N2.0trillion)
• Customers’ deposits of N2trillion, up3.5% y-t-d(Dec 2017: N3.1trillion)

The Commercial Banking business contributed 90.2% (Jun 2017: 90.3%) to the Group’s gross earnings and 84.0% (Jun 2017: 78.3%) to the Group’s profit before tax.

Commenting on the results Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, the MD/CEO of FirstBank and its Subsidiaries said: “The Commercial Banking Group reported a relatively strong set of results and I am pleased to report consistent improvement towards our strategic objectives. This is reflected in a strong 28.5% y-o-y increase in non-interest income, 15.5% y-o-y reduction in the impairment charge and a marginal increase of 0.9% y-o-y in operating expenses, despite the high inflationary environment. It is clear that our efforts to enhance our revenue generating capabilities, strengthen the risk management and control environment as well as to optimise efficiencies within our business are paying off.”

“We remain focused on maximizing the potential of our business, innovating to expand access to new markets and increasing the contribution of our international subsidiaries, using technology as a key enabler. We expect further improvements in the coming periods, from growth in the quality and yields of the loan book to enhanced remediation efforts, service delivery excellence and the risk and control environment. I am confident in the capacity of our business to deliver the expected results.”

[1]Profit after tax from continuing operations

[2]Post tax return on average equity and assets as well as the net interest margin are annualised ratios

^[3] Post-tax return on average equity computed as annualised profit after tax attributable to shareholders divided by the average opening and closing balances attributable to equity holders

^[4] Post-tax return on average assets computed as annualised profit after tax divided by the average opening and closing balances of its total assets

^[5]Earnings yield computed as annualised Interest income divided by the average opening and closing balances of interest earning assets

[6]Non-interest income is net of fee and commission expenses

^[7] Net-interest margin computed as annualised net interest income divided by the average opening and closing balances of interest earning assets

^[8] Operating income defined as Net interest income plus non-interest income

^[9] Cost of funds computed as annualised interest expense divided by average interest-bearing liabilities

^[10] Cost to income ratio computed as operating expenses divided by operating income

[11]Excluding H1 2018 profits

^[12] Basic EPS computed as annualised profit (from continuing operations attributable to owners of the parent) after tax divided by weighted average number of shares in issue.

^[13] NPL coverage computed as loan loss provisions plus statutory credit reserve divided by gross NPLs

^[14] PPOP – Pre-provision operating profit computed as sum of operating profit and impairment charge

^[15] Cost of risk computed as annualised credit impairment charges divided by the average opening and closing gross loans balances

^[16] Total assets divided by shareholders’ equity

^[17]BVPS – Book Value Per Share computed as total equity divided by number of outstanding shares

[18]Please refer to the ‘Notes to Editors’ section on page 9 for the companies in each business group

[19]The pre-consolidation numbers of each of the business groups have been considered in discussing their performance

[20]Post consolidation, the Commercial Banking, Merchant Bank & Asset Management, Insurance and Other Financial Services contributed 90.2%, 6.3%, 3.2% and 0.3% (Jun 2017: 90.3%, 6.6%, 2.8% and 0.3%) respectively to the Group’s gross earnings and 84.0%, 11.1%, 7.4% and -2.5% (Jun 2017: 78.3%, 17.5%, 6.5% and -2.3%) to the Group’s profit before tax.