04 August 2014, Lagos – Diamond Bank has recorded nine percent increase in its profit after tax for the first half (H1) of the 2014 operating year. The half year unaudited result of the bank released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) show that profit after tax (PAT) rose to N13.8 billion, from N12.6 billion in the same period of last year.
In the same period, the bank grew its total income from N11.9 billion in 2013 to N14.1 billion in the current business year (BY), representing 19% increase.
Commenting on this performance, Dr. Alex Otti, Group Managing Director/CEO, said that the bank maintained its business focus to deliver and surpass set targets.“We are pleased to release the latest set of results which demonstrate the bank’s ability to improve on our success in the previous years despite regulatory headwinds”, he stated.
According to Dr. Otti, “We continued to report healthy asset growth, which grew by 15 percent from December 2013 and have maintained strong deposit growth especially from the retail segment of the market.”
The result indicated an increased appetite for funding the real sector as loans and advances to customers were rose by 10 percent to N756 billion fromN689 billion in the previous year.
Total Assets of the Bank rose to N1.7 trillion, up 15 percent from N1.5 trillion in December 2013, while deposits from customers rose to N1.3 trillion up 8 percent from N1.2 trillion in December 2013.
“Our cost profile remains efficient as we continue our expansion drive; and our risk indicators continue to show sustainable asset quality ratios that adequately support the bank to deliver on the target returns by year end.
Although the bank’s business focus is sharpened on Corporate, Retail and Public Sector businesses, the Bank has continued to grow and maintain leading position in the Retail Banking segment of the economy. Otti said.
Vanguard