Unity Bank Plc on Thursday released its audited annual report and accounts for 2014, declaring a profit after tax of N10.692bn. The results symbolised the bank’s return to profit annual profitability after declaring a loss after tax of N22.582bn a year earlier. In the financial year ended December 31, 2014, Unity Bank made a profit before tax of N13.639bn, compared to a loss before tax of N33.639bn for the year ended December 31, 2013.
The results also showed that the bank grew its interest and similar income from N52.195bn in 2013 to N62.635bn in the year under review, indicating a 20 per cent rise year-on-year. Its earnings per share now stand at N17.45, compared to a negative position of N58.75 in 2013. Also, the bank grew its total assets by 2.2 per cent from N403.629bn to N413.305bn.
Unity Bank had in January 2014 moved to reposition its operations for better performance with the appointment of a new CEO and two executive directors as well as plans to inject fresh capital into its operations. As of October, there were indications that the bank’s efforts were yielding results after it released its third quarter results, which showed that it recorded a 900 per cent growth in profit.
The results, the first released by a bank for Q3 2014, showed that the bank, which recorded a 92 per cent growth in profit after tax the first half of the year, grew its PAT by 900 per cent, a figure that beat estimates. Also in October, the Nigerian Stock Exchange admitted 78.45 billion ordinary shares of Unity Bank in a supplementary listing following a successful rights issue and special placement exercise by the bank. The bank had raised N39.224bn via the rights issue and private placement in a bid to revamp its operations, a move that was endorsed by the bank’s shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting in December 2013.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr. Henry Semenitari, who said the issue had been oversubscribed, had assured the shareholders that the funds would be judiciously used to achieve set goals, stressing that the exercise would help revamp the bank. He had said, “The funds to be raised will be judiciously utilised to improve our processes, procedure and people. The bank’s Q1 report is already indicative of the improvements and is just an indication of the positive turn of results.” According to the bank, the offer proceeds will be used for branch development, information technology upgrade, products and channel upgrade, human resource development, corporate communications and enhancement of its working capital.
