Guaranty Trust Bank Plc on Wednesday announced its audited results for the financial year ended December 31, 2018 on the Nigerian and London Stock Exchanges.

The company in the result released by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) posted profit before tax of N215.6 billion against N197.7 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2017, an increase of 9.1 per cent.

Gross earnings for the period under grew by 3.7 per cent to ₦434.7 billion from ₦419.2 billion reported increase 2017.

Its customers’ deposits increased by 10.3 per cent to ₦2.27 trillion from ₦2.06 trillion in the comparative period of 2017.

Also, loan book dipped by 12.9 per cent from ₦1.45 trillion recorded as at December 2017 to ₦1.26 trillion in December 2018.

The result showed that the bank closed the 2018 financial year with total assets of ₦3.29 trillion and shareholders’ funds of ₦575.6 billion.

An analysis of the bank’s asset quality showed that non-performing loans and cost of risk improved to 7.3 per cent and 0.3 per cent during the review period from 7.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent in December 2017, respectively.

The bank is proposing final dividend of ₦2.45 per share in addition to interim dividend of 30k per share, bringing the total dividend for 2018 financial year to ₦2.75k per share.

Commenting on the result, Segun Agbaje, the bank’s Managing Director, said that the result represented the fundamental strength of its brand.

“In 2018, our focus on staying nimble, strengthening customers’ relationships and driving our digital-first strategy paid off.

“We successfully navigated the pressures of our challenging and radically changing business environment, recorded growth across key financial indices and reaffirmed our position as one of the best performing and well managed financial institutions in Africa.

“This result reflects, not just the fundamental strength of our brand, but also commitment to our values of excellence, creating value for all stakeholders and putting our customers first in everything that we do.

“Driven by these values, we are building the bank of the future by pairing the best of our business with the massive potential of digital technologies to create Africa’s first integrated and trusted platform,” Mr Agbaje said.

(NAN)