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With huge success recorded in its UK banking business, Access Bank Plc has again blaze the trail, with being licensed to operate a full banking operations in France.
This came as shareholders of the bank Tuesday, during a court ordered meeting, formerly accented to the Banks Statutory Report to shareholders of Access Holdings Plc (Access Corporation).
Addressing shareholders during the meeting, Dr. Herbert Wigwe, Chief Executive Officer, Access Holdco Plc who made the remark said one cardinal policy drive of the bank was to go outside its operational base in the domestic economy, and have its foothold in Europe.
He said if Nigeria must take its pride of place in the financial world, the country must have a strong and reliable financial entity, which is one major drive of Access Bank.
Dr. Wigwe who assured shareholders of continued dividend payment, said retained earnings of the bank was aimed to give the bank a solid financial footing in its operations, noting “All this expansion into other jurisdiction and re-engineering in the bank, will add to the bottom line of the Banks Holdco. And10 years from now, we would have in place a formidable entity that will also give good return on investment.
He said the banks drive was to further ensure that, any payment system that comes to the continent, one out of three will be done on Access Bank platform.
Amongst the resolution accented to by shareholders includes; “in accordance with the Scheme of Arrangement, the 35,545,225,622 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each in the issued and paid-up share capital of the Bank held by the shareholders be and are hereby transferred to Access Holdings Plc in exchange for the allotment of 35,545,225,622 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each in the shares capital of Holdco to the shareholders in proportion to their shareholding in the Bank credited as fully paid without any further act or deed.
“The Board of Directors of the Bank be and is hereby authorized to take all necessary action to delist the shares of the Bank from the official list of the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
Access Bank’s shares outstanding of 35,545,225,622 units are valued at N325.238billion. Stanbic Nominees Limited holds 4,091,310,660 units representing 11.51 percent of the bank’s shares outstanding while others shareholders hold 31,453,914,962 units or 88.49percent. Note that Stanbic Nominees held the shares as custodian for various investors. Stanbic Nominees does not exercise any right over the underlying shares. The Share Capital for Access Holdings Plc would amount to N17.772billion.
Access Bank Plc gained further momentum in the third quarter towards its historic move to become the first Nigerian bank to hit the N1 trillion mark in gross earnings by the end of the 2022 financial year. The N13.5 trillion financial institution closed the third quarter operations with gross earnings of N908 billion, already close to the N949 billion revenue figure it posted at the end of 2021.
The third quarter interim financial report of the bank for the period ended September 2022 shows that it stepped by gross earnings from a quarterly average of N296 billion at half year to N316 billion in the third quarter. The third quarter earnings accounted for 35 percent of the nine-month revenue figure.
The projection is in line with earlier analysis of the company’s expected stronger second half for the bank on revenue performance, which also supports our full year revenue projection for the bank in the region of N1.2 trillion.
Three main income lines are driving the bank’s revenue growth so far in the year, which is led by net gains in financial instruments that rebounded from a net loss of N1.8 billion in the same period last year to N78.4 billion at the end of the third quarter.
This is followed by net gains on hedging, which made a similar upswing from a net loss of N1.1 billion to N8.8 billion over the same period.
The third revenue growth driver is interest income — the main revenue line of the bank, which grew by about 22 percent from N471 billion to N573 billion over the review period.
Also, after tax profit has rebounded after dropping from N57.4 billion in the first quarter to N31.3 billion in the second to N48 billion in the third quarter. The numbers sum up to N137 billion after tax profit the bank posted at the end of the third quarter operations.
Revenue continues to grow well ahead of profit at 31 percent compared to 12.3 percent over the corresponding figures in the same quarter in 2021. Net profit margin went down from 17.6 percent to 15 percent over the same period.
Cost increases explain the disparity in the growths of revenue and profit and the main culprit is the cost of funds. At N291.5 billion, interest expenses grew by 43.4 percent over the corresponding figure in 2021, roughly twice the 22 percent increase in interest earnings.
Another major cost increase came from net loan loss charges that rose by 37 percent from N38.7 billion in the same period last year to N53 billion at the end of September 2022. Credit losses are rising rapidly for the fourth straight year after an increase of 32 percent to over N83 billion in 2021.
The two major cost increases consumed more than all the increase of N102 billion in interest income over the review period and left a slight decline in net interest income after loan impairment charges at N227.6 billion. Effectively, no part of the increase in interest earnings formed part of the improvement in the bottom line.
Access Holdings Plc will become the listed parent entity of the bank and related group companies. The banking subsidiaries of Access Bank are Access Bank (Gambia) Limited; Access Bank (Sierra Leone) Limited; Access Bank (Rwanda) Plc; Access Bank (Zambia) Limited; Access Bank (R.D Congo) S.A.R.L; Access Bank (Ghana) Plc; Access Bank (Guinea) S.A; The Access Bank (UK )Limited; Access Bank (Mozambique) S.A; Access Bank Kenya Plc; Access Bank (South Africa) Limited; and African Banking Corporation of Botswana Limited.
