[upme_private]Sterling Bank released its 2013 H1 results with Gross Earnings rising 28% to N41.8billion. Net Interest income rose 26.8% to N15.1billion in the period under review compared to N11.9billion in Q1 2012. Pre-tax profits rose 93% to N6.2billion (2012 H1: N3.2billion). Earnings per share will therefore rise 76.5% to 35kobo compared to 20kobo same period last year.
Key Highlights
- Loans and advances rose 7% to N272. 7billion compared to N230billion in at the end of 2012. The bank has only added N42billion to its Loan book.
- Net Interest Income rose 26.8% during the period to N15billion on the back of an increase in loans and advances. Interest margin will also fare better than it did the same period last year rising 48.8%
- Operating expenses rose sharply to N18.5billion representing an increase of 24%. It in fact added about N10billion in operating expenses between April and June 2013
- However, this did not impact heavily on Cost to Income ratio as it dropped to 71% from 82%. The reason for this is the 70% rise in other operating income. Income from fees, commissions and other sources added a huge N10.7billion to Net Operating Income which help negate the impact of high operating cost.
- Deposits also grew 21% in the last six months which is a strong improvement from 18% growth at the end of 2012
- Sterling Bank suffered more loan losses during the period, writing off N1.1billion at this time of the year. The bank did not have significant loan losses last year but has now incurred losses in two consecutive quarters. It wrote of over N700million between April and June alone.
- Return on Average Equity at the end of the period was 12%
- The banks currents Earnings Per share is just 9kobo lower than the 44kobo posted in the whole of 2012
- Earnings per share is likely to be much lower at the end of Q3 as the dilution brought about by the recent rights issue begin to impact on the books of the company.
- Sterling Bank share price rose 0.38% to N2.67 today representing an earnings yield on TTM EPS of 16.3%. The share price is currently trading at 90% of Book Value per share.
Sterling Bank 2013 H1 Results was posted in the website of the NSE[/upme_private]
