United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc., a leading pan-African financial institution, has given its shareholders reason to rejoice by increasing the interim dividend distribution for 2021 by 17.7%.
According to a report monitored by Freelanews, UBA has set Thursday, September 30 as the payment date for the half-year dividend, but it will only be paid to shareholders whose names appear on the register of members as of Thursday, September 23 at the close of business.
The gross earnings grew by 5.0 percent to N315.3 billion in H1 2020, up from N300.3 billion in H1 2020, thanks to higher contributions from the Rest of Africa and Rest of the World divisions.
The company’s revenue from the rest of Africa increased to N141.9 billion from N107.2 billion last year, while revenue from the rest of the world increased to N9.6 billion from N9.2 billion, and overall income from its Nigeria operations decreased to N171.2 billion from N189.6 billion.
The corporate arm of the business generated N88.3 billion in the first six months of this year, up from N55.3 billion in HY 2020; the retail and commercial arm raked in N156.9 billion, down from N184.8 billion in the same period last year; and the treasury and financial markets segment raked in N70.1 billion, up from N60 billion in the same period last year.
In the accounting period, UBA recorded a net interest income of N148.1 billion compared with N119.3 billion in the same time of 2020, driven by higher interest income and lower interest expense of N74.6 billion compared with the N86.3 billion posted in the first half of 2020.
In addition, the net fees and commission income closed higher at N45.8 billion versus N38.6 billion in H1 2020 due to the fees and commission income of N74.1 billion in the period under review compared with N55.9 billion in the same period of last year and fees and commission expense of N28.3 billion in contrast to N17.3 billion it printed 12 months earlier.
However, the net trading and foreign exchange income significantly went down to N9.1 billion from N35.2 billion, while other operating income rose to N9.5 billion from N3.6 billion.
According to report also monitored by Freelanews, the lender reduced employee benefit expenses to N42.6 billion in HY 2021 from N44.6 billion, but was unable to control other operating expenses, which increased to N78.8 billion from N78.0 billion due to higher fuel, repairs and maintenance costs, bank charges, deposit insurance premiums, and banking sector resolution costs.
UBA’s pre-tax profit grew by 33.5 percent to N76.2 billion from N57.1 billion in the first half of last year, while net profit increased by 36.5 percent to N60.6 billion from N44.4 billion, with earnings per share (EPS) at N1.69 compared to N1.24 in the first half of last year.
The total assets of the bank moved to N8.3 trillion in H1 2021 from N7.7 trillion in FY 2020, while the total liabilities rose to N7.6 trillion from N7.0 trillion, with deposits from customers accounting for N6.1 trillion of the total liabilities compared with N5.7 trillion as at December 31, 2020.
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