Zenith International Bank Plc has declared a profit after tax of N75.32 billion for the half year ended June 30,2017 according to its half year result released at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday.
The report showed that the profit-after-tax increased by 112.35 per cent when compared with N35.47 billion posted in the preceding period of 2016, while profit-before-tax rose to N92.18 billion, from N53.91 billion in 2016.
The profit came from gross earnings of N380.4 billion in 2017 as against N214.8 billion reported in the comparative period of 2016, with Net interest income rising to N138.962 billion, compared to N127 billion in 2016, while impairment charges increased by 196 per cent from N14.2 billion to N42 billion.
Similarly the bank’s trading income, from foreign exchange, jumped from negative N864 million to positive N65.318 billion; as miscellaneous operating income growing to N15.11 billion in 2017 from N3.75billion
The bank also announced an interim dividend of N7.8 billion, which translated to 25k per share, same amount paid in the corresponding period of 2016.
Mr Jim Ovia, the bank’s Chairman, assured the shareholders in March that the bank would continue to reward them accordingly.
Ovia said in line with its commitment to delivering superior returns to its shareholders, the bank ensured that a good chunk of the profit was set aside for shareholders.
He stated that the bank had maintained a culture of outstanding performance and industry leadership even in the face of a very challenging operating environment.
“As a bank, we are monitoring developments both in the local and global economy and applying pragmatism and dynamism as appropriate.”
Our strategy and approach to the pursuit of financial inclusion and sustainability gives us a lot of competitive advantage to explore even new frontiers in the market.”