FBN Holding granted an earnings call yesterday to analyst throwing more light in to their 2013 H1 performance as well as the outlook as we approach the third quarter. I wasn’t in on the call, however I found extracts of the earnings call in the Punch Newspaper and I will like to highlight a few notable quotes.
FBN Holdings Plc, owner of First Bank Nigeria, the West African nation’s third-largest lender by market value, forecasts slower loan growth of 10 per cent for this year on new regulatory requirements.
Loans declined by 1.2 per cent in first-half through June due to cuts in retail credit and exposure to downstream oil and gas industries, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Bayo Adelabu, said on Thursday on a conference call from Lagos. Lending rose 23 per cent in 2012, he said.
This is bound to affect Net Interest income this year and as such one should expect to see flat growth at the best. The bank also indicated its willingness to juggle its loan portfolio by reducing lending to the Oil and Gas sector and increasing lending to Power, Manufacturing and Telecoms Sector. Power and Telecoms I believe will be the engine of growth for the economy next year.
“We’ll target power, manufacturing and telecommunications sectors for lending in the second half, and do more investment banking to mitigate the impact of regulatory rules,” Adelabu said.
