LAGOS, APRIL 13, 2018 – Shareholders of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc have unanimously approved the payment of total dividend of N2.70 per every 50 kobo ordinary share for the financial year ended December 31, 2017.
The bank had proposed a final dividend of N2.40 per unit of ordinary share held by shareholders in addition to interim dividend of 30 kobo per unit of ordinary share bringing total dividend for 2017 financial year to N2.70 per unit of ordinary share.
A grand patron of the Nigerian Shareholders’ Solidarity Association, Chief Timothy Adesiyan, speaking at the annual general meeting, expressed his appreciation to the bank’s board and management for growing profit and increasing dividend payment at a time when many other banks recorded lower profit and had to cut dividends.
He said: “this dividend payment reinforces the resilience of the Bank amidst challenging operating environment and it also shows the quality of the bank’s management.”
The Chairperson of the bank, Mrs. Osarentin Demuren, speaking at the meeting, said: “the bank’s balance sheet remained strong with a 3.9 per cent growth in total assets and contingents as the Bank closed the year ended December 2017 with total assets and contingents of N3.845 trillion and shareholders’ funds of N625.2 billion. In terms of assets quality, non-performing loans ratio increased to 7.7 per cent in December 2017 from 3.7 per cent in December 2016 largely as a result of classification of a single exposure within the Nigerian Telecommunications industry.
“However, non-performing loans would moderate to 4.6 per cent, which is below regulatory threshold, if we exclude this name from NPL ratio computation. Overall, asset quality remains stable with adequate coverage of 119.6 per cent, while capital remains strong with CAR of 25.7 per cent. On the backdrop of this result, return on equity (ROAE) and return on assets (ROAA) closed at 35.4 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively,”
Commenting on the financial results, the Managing Director/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank plc, Mr. Segun Agbaje, said; “2017 was a pivotal year for the bank. We delivered a strong result in a challenging environment; achieving record growth in earnings, carefully managing cost margins and leveraging our digital-first customer-centric strategy to deliver world-class services that are simple, cheap and easily accessible.”
