The Chairman, Board of Directors, Abbey Building Society Plc, Mr. Ifeanyichukwu Ochonogor, said the firm did not perform badly in the past fiscal year despite its inability to pay its shareholders dividends.
Ochonogor, who spoke at the company’s 21st Annual General Meeting in Lagos on Friday, said the outlook for the current year was, however, brighter than the previous as dividends would be paid to shareholders.
He said the board of the mortgage bank was constrained not to recommend payment of dividends for the financial period ended December 31, 2012.
Ochonogor said, “This is because we have had to grapple with basic provisioning recommended by the relevant International Financial Reporting Standards and regulatory reserve of the Central Bank of Nigeria. These left us with un-distributable profit in 2012.
“It is, however, important to note that our shareholders’ fund went up by 3.13 per cent from N7bn in 2011 to N7.22bn in 2012. The relative increase in 2011 over 2010 was 0.75 per cent; that is, N7bn and N6.95bn, respectively.”
Speaking on the company’s financial report, the chairman said the 2012 financial statements were prepared under the provisions of the applicable IFRS.
He added, “Thus, our financial performance scorecard showed that our gross earnings increased by 18.28 per cent from the N1.79bn recorded in 2011, to N2.12bn in 2012; net interest income grew by 22.90 per cent from N1.06bn in 2011to N1.30bn in 2012.
We grew our total assets by 1.87 per cent from N14.07bn in 2011 to N14.35bn in 2012; deposit liabilities increased by 11.39 from N3.72bn in 2011 to N4.15bn in 2012.
“Considering the tough operating environment faced by our sub-sector in the banking industry, including increased regulatory compliance requirements, the results can be an improvement over the preceding year.”
In her speech, the Managing Director, Ms. Rose Okwechime, said Abbey made significant progress in some key indicators despite the “challenging operating environment characterised by low economic growth and a consistently changing regulatory landscape.”