WorldStage Newsonline– Access Bank on Wednesday published its fourth quarter (Q4) 2017 results which showed that profit before tax (PBT) declined by 67% y/y to N7.2bn. no thanks to the -50% y/y reduction in non-interest income and a 125% y/y spike in loan loss provisions.
These negatives completely offset funding income growth of 28% y/y and a 21% y/y decrease in opex.
Further down the P&L, the y/y contraction in PAT narrowed to -9%, thanks to a positive result of N8.2bn in other comprehensive income (OCI). Sequentially, PBT and PAT fell by -66% q/q and -57% q/q respectively.
On a fully year basis, PBT and PAT both fell by around 11% y/y.
Management has proposed a final dividend of N0.40 per share, which implies a yield of 3.4%. Having paid an interim dividend of N0.25, the final dividend brings the total dividend for 2017 to N0.65 per share, flat y/y. The total dividend implies a payout ratio of 20.9%.
The y/y spike in provisions was due to due to impairments taken on the bank’s 9mobile exposure while the positive surprise in opex was largely due to over-accrued expenses as at 9M 2017.
