Fidelity Bank Announce 21.6% PBT Growth, Propose 10 kobo Interim Dividend

Kayode Tokede

Fidelity Bank Plc, yesterday announced its audited half year ended June 30, 2022 result and accounts with 21.6 per cent increase in profit before tax to N25.08billion from N20.63billion reported in the half year ended June 30, 2021.

The lender on the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX) also reported N23.31billion profit in H1 2022, representing an increase of 20.7 per cent from N19.31billion in H1 2021.

With the increase in profit, the board and directors of Fidelity Bank proposed an interim dividend of N0.10 kobo per share.

In addition, the bank reported N154.8billion gross earnings in H1 2022, representing an increase of 38 per cent from N112.3billion reported in H1 2021.
The increase in gross earnings was on account of 52.9 per cent growth in interest income to N136.2billion in H1 2022 from N89.1billion in H1 2021. The increase in Interest Income was driven by improved yield on earnings assets and 14.9per cent Year-till-Date (YTD) expansion in earnings base to N2,546.5billion.
However, net fee income declined by N1.4billion or 9.6per cent due to N10billion or 117.9 per cent drop in foreign exchange gains.

MD/CEO of Fidelity Bank Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe in a statement explained that, “We are delighted with our H1 2022 performance which showed strong growth across key performance indices.

“With improved efficiency and customer experience around our network, customer transactions have grown considerably as we optimize our balance sheet and build up a large stock of stable low-cost deposits.”

She added that, “We recently executed a binding agreement for the acquisition of 100per cent equity stake in Union Bank UK Plc in line with our strategic objectives and business expansion drive.

“Union Bank UK offers a compelling synergy we hope to build on, to create a scalable and more sustaining service franchise that will support the wider ecosystem of our trade businesses and diaspora banking services.”

Fidelity Bank’ s total deposits increased by 13.1per cent YTD to N2,290.1billion from N2,024.8billion in 2021, driven by double-digit growth in low-cost deposits (Demand | Savings | Domiciliary).

Low-cost deposits increased by 26.1 per cent YTD to N1,902.4billion and now represents 83.1 per cent of total deposits from 74.5 per cent in 2021FY, which explains the drop in funding cost.

The bank’s FCY deposits increased by $497million (52.8 per cent YTD) and now accounts for 26.5 per cent of total deposits from 19.5 per cent in 2021, as we continue to harness the benefits of our renewed drive in the export business and the diaspora banking space.

Net Loans and Advances increased by 15.3 per cent YTD to N1,912.7billionn from N1,658.4billionn in 2021FY, with intervention funding responsible for over 32 per cent of the absolute growth in risk assets book.

However, Fidelity Bank’s Non-performing loans (NPL) ratio dropped to 2.7 per cent from 2.9 per cent in 2021FY, which led to a decline in cost of risk to 0.2 per cent from 0.5 per cent in 2021FY as asset quality continue to improve.

Other Regulatory Ratios were above the required thresholds with liquidity ratio at 4.7 per cent and capital adequacy ratio (CAR) at 19.8 per cent compared to the minimum requirement of 15per cent.