United Capital’s Assets Base Hits N95 Billion
Stories by Goddy Egene
United Capital Plc, an investment banking firm, has grown its total assets to N95.29 billion at the year ended December 31, 2014, up by 20 per cent from N79.48 billion in 2013. Shareholders’ funds stood at N 9.31billion while the return on average equity (ROE) was 21 per cent highlighting continued value creation for share holders. Cash and cash equivalents made up 33 per cent of the group’s assets, while financial assets accounted for 61 per cent.
The company generated gross earnings of N 4.68 billion in 2014, up 2.3 from 2013. Total gross earnings were driven primarily by fee and commission income (39 per cent) and investment income (35 per cent). The company also grew net interest margin, which is income generated from funds under management by 103.08 per cent, while Other income also grew 42.5 per cent over its 2013 value and contributed 16.2 of total gross earnings.
In terms of profitability, United Capital, grew profit after tax by five per cent from N1.7 billion to N1.84 billion, ending with a strong profit margin of 39 per cent. The directors recommended a dividend of 20 kobo per share.
In his address to shareholders the second annual general meeting of the company in Lagos last Thursday, the Chairman of the company, Mr. Chika Mordi said despite the chal- lenging environment, “we have continued to deliver value tom shareholders through prudent investment resources, continuous investment in technology and training, which has enabled us improve our processes and turnaround tie to the delight of our clients.”
Speaking in the same, the Group Chief Exeutive Officer of the company, Mrs. Oluwtoyin Sanni said profitability level was achieved notwithstanding that the company operates predominantly in the capital market space where the equity market in general posted a negative return of 16.1 per cent in 2014.
According to her, the management is confident of its ability to sweat the growth in assets to achieve greater profitability in future.
“Management’s current drive is for a reduction in cost to income ratio through income growth from all the businesses as well as the deployment of recently acquired IT Infrastructure to drive efficiency. The company continues to play a leading role across its areas of operations in Trusteeship, Investment Banking, Asset Management and Securities. We look forward to expanding our scope of operations to comprehensively cover the entire investment life-cycle. It is our belief that as concerns over the political and economic landscape begin to ease, marked growth will be seen in the various business lines,” she said.