Four Tier-1 Banks’ UK Subsidiaries Declare N49.24bn PBT

Nume Ekeghe

Four Tier-1 Nigerian banks operating in the United Kingdom (UK) reported a sum of N49.24billion profit before tax in 2022 financial year, an increase of 89.63per cent from N25.97billion reported in 2021, THISDAY findings have revealed.

UBA UK, Access Bank UK, GTBank UK, and Zenith Bank UK  had declared N867.36 billion profit before tax in 2022, an increase of 4.3per cent from N831.52 billion reported in 2021.

This means the UK subsidiaries of these four banks contributed about 5.68 per cent of total profit before tax reported in 2022, whilst Nigeria subsidiaries contributed 89 per cent in 2022.

According to THISDAY investigations from audited 2022 financial year result and accounts, GTBank UK is the only financial institution with loss before tax in the year under review, while UBA migrated from loss before tax, amid growth in its operating income.

The breakdown revealed that Zenith Bank UK reported N20.55billion profit before tax in 2022, an increase of 317.2 per cent from N4.93billion reported in 2021, while The Access Bank UK declared N25.07billion profit before tax in 2022, an increase of 11 per cent from N22.6billionreported in 2021.

UBA UK migrated from N428million loss before tax in 2021 to N5.24billion in profit before tax in 2022 as GTBank UK posted N1.61billion loss before tax in 2022 from N1.16billion loss before tax reported in 2021.

GTBank UK saw its operating expenses spike in 2022 and regulatory sanctions, two major contributing factors to its loss in the year under review.

The Banking subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc in UK over the years continued to report losses despite growing deposit and lending to customers.

In 2022FY, GTBank UK declared N10.33billion gross earnings, 117.1 per cent high from N4.76billion in 2021 but closed the year with N1.61 billion loss in 2022 from N1.17billion loss reported in 2021.

Amid decline in loss, GTBank UK saw its Return on Average Equity (RoAE) at -9.4 per cent in 2022 from -6.3 per cent reported in 2021. GTBank UK in 2020 financial year had reported N1.62billion loss before tax and in 2019, it declared N985.48million profit before tax.