Segun Agbaje, MD GT Bank
Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GUARANTY), Nigeria’s biggest lender by market value, rose for a second day after full-year profit jumped 37 percent and the company announced a final dividend.
The shares increased as much as 3.2 percent to 14.50 naira before paring its gain to 14.15 naira by 12:43 p.m. in Lagos. Net income in 2011 surged to 52.65 billion naira ($334 million) from 38.35 billion naira a year earlier, the Lagos-based bank said in an e-mailed statement today.
The result “is in line with our expectations,” Adesoji Solanke, Lagos-based Africa banking analyst at Renaissance Capital, wrote in an initial reaction to the results today.
Guaranty will pay a final dividend of 85 kobo per share on April 29, it said. This will increase the total dividend to 1.10 naira, with the bank having paid an interim dividend of 25 kobo per share, it said. Revenue climbed 23 percent to 188.82 billion naira, according to the statement.
Nigerian banks’ earnings are rising after the central bank implemented reforms following the debt crisis in 2008 and 2009 which threatened the industry with a collapse. The regulator fired the chief executive officers of eight of the country’s 24 lenders and asked those that failed an audit to recapitalize or be liquidated.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Nwanma in Lagos at vnwanma@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dulue Mbachu at dmbachu@bloomberg.net
