Union Bank’s earnings rise by 33%

Union Bank of Nigeria Plc has recorded a 33 per cent rise in its gross earnings for the financial year ended December 31, 2012.

Its full year results, released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday, showed that gross earnings rose to N112.8bn.

The bank’s profit before tax stood at N7.9bn, up from a loss of N102.6bn the previous year, while its profit after tax rose to N7.9bn as against the loss of N76.7bn of the year before.

Operating expenses improved for both the bank and the group, with the bank recording N66.5bn in expenses as against N73.2bn the previous year.

Also the bank’s capital adequacy, at 20 per cent, was above the 15 per cent regulatory requirement for international banks, while liquidity ratio was 96 per cent, also above the 30 per cent regulatory requirement.

The bank’s Group Managing Director and Chief Executive, Emeka Emuwa, said, “Our 2012 results have fully incorporated all costs relating to the recently concluded recapitalisation and clean up of our loan portfolio.

The Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the bank, Oyinkan Adewale, said, “We are happy to report the improvement from year-end 2011 to year-end 2012 in most performance measures.

Meanwhile, equity trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange closed negative on Monday, with major indicators recording marginal losses.

The market captialisation of the listed equities lost N41bn or 0.4 per cent to close at N10.561tn.