UBA releases Half year audited Result

United Bank for Africa Plc, has announced its audited 2015 half year financial results, showing strong growth in earnings and profits. Details of the bank’s half year audited results released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange yesterday, showed that earnings grew by 21 per cent to N166.9 billion during the period, compared to N138.2 billion in the same period of June 2014. The bank’s profit before tax (PBT) also rose 35.1 per cent to N39.0 billion, while profit after tax (PAT) increased by 40 per cent to N32 billion within the same period. As a reward to shareholders, the bank has announced the payment of an interim dividend of 20 kobo per share. Speaking on the results, group managing director/CEO Phillips Oduoza, said, “In spite of a challenging operating environment, our business strategy has proved to be resilient, balancing prudence, with an ability to significantly grow bottom line and continue to focus on operating effectiveness. We look forward to continuing to support our customers and working with them to achieve financial success for them and the wider Nigerian and African economies” UBA 2015 half year results showed significant improvement in operational efficiencies. The bank’s net operating income rose 21 per cent to N108.7 billion in June 2015, compared to N90 billion in the comparable period of 2014. The bank has continued to focus on operational efficiency, with a cost to income ratio of 64 per cent; as against 68 per cent in the same period in 2014. Oduoza explained, “We delivered strong growth of 21 per cent in gross earnings and 40 per cent in profit after tax, reflecting better extraction of value across all business segments and our on-going process optimisation.