Coronation Merchant Bank Records N25.5b Gross Earnings
Coronation Merchant Bank Limited has announced its 2017 full year results to stakeholders, which showed gross earnings of N25.5 billion and N5.1 billion Profit Before Tax (PBT).
Its Group Managing Director/CEO, Abu Jimoh, who spoke at the bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos at the weekend, said despite the tough market conditions that characterised significant parts of the year, the underlying business fundamentals of the bank remained strong as reflected in the Gross earnings growth of 66 per cent to N25.5 billion in the period ended December 31, 2017.
“As we progress in our journey to become Africa’s premier Investment Bank, we remain committed to providing our clients with superior financial services, whilst generating attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders.
The impressive results of the bank in the last three years demonstrated the effectiveness of our strategy, the quality of our past decisions and the commitment of our board and management to maximise shareholder’s value while actively expanding our franchise in select, high growth markets where we believe we have a competitive advantage,” he said.
Coronation Merchant Bank Group recorded a notable improvement across key performance metrics in 2017, despite the tough and challenging operating environment. Its interest income growth of 67 per cent year-on-year and non-interest income growth of 57 per cent in 2017 re-affirmed the sustainability of “our core business growth”.
“We will continue to gain momentum in our efforts to achieve more diversified earnings, as we strengthen our subsidiaries offerings.
“Our deliberate focus on the efficiency of our business operations has continued to yield considerable returns for the Bank. Despite the high inflation rate, cost-to-income ratio increased marginally by 90 basis points to 46.1 per cent, reaffirming the bank’s commitment to rein in costs while improving operating efficiency.
Aside from the strong earnings performance, the Group recorded a significant growth in its Balance Sheet in 2017. Total assets increased by 28 per cent to N136.7 billion from N106.6 billion in December 2016, and shareholder’s funds increased to N29.5 billion from N25.9 billion, a valid testament to the resilience of the Group’s operations and its adaptability to current market realities and challenges.
“We will continue to maintain a disciplined and prudent approach in asset creation in line with our overall risk management framework and evidenced in our growth in loan book of 42 per cent, which increased from N22.7 billion to N32.3 billion with zero non-performing loans.
While general economic conditions and the regulatory environment remain tight, we believe that our new business and lending strategies, embedded risk management culture and continuous cost savings will enable us stand firm throughout this period,” he said.
In the coming years, according to him, the bank will focus on the disciplined implementation of “our growth strategy to drive efficiency in all segments of our business leveraging fintech and process re-engineering”.
The bank also grew its total assets by 28 per cent to N136.7 billion while loans and advances to customers up 42 per cent to N32.3 billion.
Coronation Merchant Bank group was established to fill the gap in a long-underserved market segment, seeking to address the need for long term capital across key sectors of the economy. The group offers investment and corporate banking, private banking/wealth management and global markets/treasury services to its diverse clients.
It also offers securities trading/brokerage, asset management and trustees services via its subsidiaries: Coronation Securities Limited and Coronation Asset Management Limited respectively.
Driven by its vision of becoming Africa’s premier investment Bank and with an asset base of over N130 billion, the banking group is certain to leverage its privileged direction by some Nigeria’s individuals, who excelled and rose to the top of merchant banking sector at its height of excellence to become the industry model for risk management, corporate governance and responsible business practices.
Its quest for industry distinction is evident in its recently unveiled corporate identity, which has been designed to communicate the group’s vision, ambition and inner strength.
