Posted by By SEUN ADESIDA on
Diamond Bank Nigeria Plc has declared gross earnings of N39.4 billion, an increase of 73.8 per cent over the N22.8 billion earned in the previous year.
• Declares N4.2bn dividend
Diamond Bank Nigeria Plc has declared gross earnings of N39.4 billion, an increase of 73.8 per cent over the N22.8 billion earned in the previous year.
The growth, according to the bank's Group Managing Director, Mr. Emeka Onwuka, is an indication that the implementation of the bank's post-industry consolidation strategies had started to yield good results.
Mr. Onwuka explained that the bank achieved the accelerated growth in earnings and profitability by attracting, retaining and deepening customer relationships in all its markets.
He said details of the audited results for the year under review also indicated significant improvements in other performance indices, with the bank realizing a profit before tax of N9.0 billion for the year ended April 30, 2007. This represents a growth of 65.4 per cent over N5.4 billion recorded in 2006.
While profit after tax for the year grew by 78.2 per cent to N7.1 billion as against N4.0 billion achieved in 2006, it resulted in an earning per share of 91 kobo for the year compared to 59 kobo in 2006.
Onwuka revealed that given the bank's impressive performance, the Board of Directors has recommended the payment of N4.2 billion out of the profit as dividend to shareholders. This translates into a dividend of 55 kobo per share. The proposed dividend to shareholders followed the writing off of the goodwill in the bank's books, arising from the consolidation with the former Lion Bank Plc. The bank's shareholders, at last year's annual general meeting (AGM), had passed a resolution towards writing off the goodwill.
Speaking on the bank's deposit base, which is a measure of its service delivery performance, he said it achieved 46.2 per cent growth, moving from N148.6 billion, in 2006, to N217.2 billion in 2007, while total assets and contingent liabilities rose to N416.4 billion, a growth of 57.6 per cent over last year's figures.
The bank, Onwuka said, also raised the bar in international trade operations in Nigeria with the introduction of a document and transaction monitoring service, tagged Diamond Trade Tracker. This is a web-based service, designed to provide corporate customers access to on-line, real-time information on their international trade transactions at no extra cost.
Diamond bank entered into strategic equity partnership with Actis Capital LLP towards the end of last financial year. The latter injected $134 million (N17.1 billion) fresh equity capital into the bank to finance some of its growth strategies.
Onwuka disclosed that Actis was introducing expert consultancy services to the bank to accelerate the delivery of its strategy and maximize shareholder value creation. In this regard and towards driving the growth, size and efficiency of the bank's balance sheet to achieve the desired trend in earnings and profitability, "we are working with the consultants in the areas of retail banking, balance sheet management, joint venture partners, risk management and people strategy," he said.
The bank boss stressed that the recent investments in promising financial service sub-sectors, including insurance, mortgage and pension funds, would improve the growth, earning mix and profitability of the bank's business over time.
"Conscious of the fact that these businesses are outside its core competence areas, the bank is working with very competent and experienced firms to speedily position the subsidiaries for market penetration," he added.
It is expected that the bank's enhanced positioning in the core banking and non-bank financial services sector would impact positively on growth of revenue and profit in the new financial year.
Diamond Bank currently operates 124 business offices spread across all the geographical zones of the country and is about expanding the network to over 200 offices.
He concluded that notwithstanding the increased competition in the Nigerian banking industry, the bank was being positioned to create market niches for it to effectively exploit the benefits of the emerging business opportunities.