Group Managing Director of Union Bank Plc Emeka Emuwa has promised to leverage new business model and ensure effective cost management in its 2015 operations.

At the bank’s 46th yearly general meeting, Emuwa said the bank would also focus on risk management, driving low cost deposits, proactive capital management to ensure regulatory compliance and effective utilization of capital.

According to him, the outcome of the initiative would help increase shareholders’ value in the current financial year.

He noted that the bank experienced 28 per cent growth in net operating income from N60.9 billion in 2013 to N77.9 billion, while the Group experienced 34per cent growth from N63.9 billion in 2013 to N85.7 billion in 2014.

The Bank, according to him, grew profit before tax by N16 billion, closing the year with N20.7 billion, up from N4.2 billion in 2013, while the Group closed at N27.7 billion, up from N3.8 billion in 2013.

“While one-off gains of N6.3 billion from sale of subsidiaries added significant boost to profits, we were able to grow profitability from our core operations, combined with our effective cost management initiatives which stabilized our costs, and kept expenses flat year-on- year.

“This led to a cost-to-income ratio improvement from 74 per cent in 2013 to 68per cent in 2014 for the Bank, and from 75 per cent to 63per cent for the Group (net of restructuring costs).”,

He assured that the balance sheet remains strong with total assets of the Bank and Group closing the year at N920.9 billion and N1, 009 billion respectively.

“We are pleased to say that we improved Shareholder value by increasing return on average Equity from 3per cent in 2013 to 10per cent in 2014 for the Bank and from 2per cent in 2013 to 13per cent in 2014 for the group. Earnings per Share improved from 30 kobo to 121 kobo in 2014 for the Bank and from 37 kobo to 157 kobo in 2014 for the Group’.