Zenith Bank Plc on Tuesday announced a profit before tax of N102.10bn for the financial year ended December 2012, up by 51.4 per cent from the N67.44bn recorded in 2011.
A statement by the bank showed that the profit after tax for the period was N100.68bn, which represents a 106.7 per cent increase from the N48.70bn recorded in the corresponding period in 2011.
The statement said, “The much expected result confirms the bank’s leadership position in the industry as it became the first to cross the N100bn profit after tax mark in a financial year.
“The result also showed the bank is maintaining its leadership position on other parameters with total assets plus contingents of N2.60tn, representing a 12.7 per cent increase over the N2.30tn recorded in 2011.”
The Board of Directors of the bank has proposed a dividend payout of N1.60 per share.
Other highlights of the results showed that gross earnings rose by 25.88 per cent from N243.94bn to N307.08bn, indicating an increasing market share.
The result also showed the bank’s commitment to prudent debt management, as its total non-performing credit facilities to total credit facilities stood at three per cent, an improvement over the six per cent recorded the previous year.
Zenith Bank, Nigeria’s largest bank by tier-1 capital and shareholder funds, recently listed $850m worth of its shares on the London Stock Exchange at $6.80 each in a major step to improve liquidity in its stock through Global Depository Receipts.
By its size, the $850m GDR listing is the largest of any Nigerian bank on the LSE to date and is expected to help Zenith Bank, with a market capitalisation of $4.24bn, access to a wide range of major institutional investors and significantly raise its international profile.
Zenith Bank, which has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and representative offices in South Africa and China and a customer base of over two million, was named the ‘Best Bank in Corporate Governance’ by World Finance and one of the ‘20 Global Super Brands’ by FTSE Global Markets.