Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GUARANTY) released its nine months unaudited results for the period ended September 30th 2017, yesterday, being 18th October, 2017.
From the result gathered,
Gross Earnings dropped marginally by 5.88%y/y to N309.91 billion while Operating Expenses grew by 9.29% y/y.
Profit before Tax grew by 8.73% y/y to N150.03 bilion (enhanced by 36%y/y growth in interest income which more than offset the significant decline in non-interest income of 58%y/y). The significant drop in Non-Interest Income was as a result of 87%y/y drop in Foreign Exchange Revaluation gains coupled with 21%y/y decline in Fees and Commission . (The decline in fee and commission income broadly reflected the lower gains on credit related fees and E-business income). On the other hand, net gains on financial instruments rose significantly by 229.8%y/y, following improved gains on T-bills, bonds, and foreign exchange trading.
Profit after Tax increased by 7.26% y/y to N125.58 bilion after an income tax surge of 16.95%y/y.
Earnings per share (EPS) also grew to N4.44 in the period, compared with N4.41 recorded in the previous year.
Commenting on the Bank’s financial results, Segun Agbaje, the Managing Director/CEO said that, “Given the progress we made in the first half of the year, we came into the second half with the objective of remaining focused on our core strategy of serving the full value chain of our customers’ needs whilst maintaining high standards of customer service.
Finally, GUARANTY 9M’17 result was impressive despite non-recurrence of significant FX revaluation gain during the period.Based on our TP of N41.70 which it closed yesterday, we have a HOLD recommendation on the stock.