Union Bank Plc has pledged to drive its business priorities by focusing on growing deposit base, transactions income and clientele base in order to enhance profitability.
To achieve this, the bank plans to grow its trade and retail business, growing its public sector business in light of the opportunities created by the present administration, as well as driving more value chain synergies across its businesses in Nigeria and United Kingdom.
Addressing shareholders during the banks 47th yearly general meeting held in Lagos at the weekend, the Managing Director of the bank, Emeka Emuwa listed other areas of focus to include; proactively managing its risks, reducing operational costs, effectively utilising capital and managing liquidity to increase shareholders’ value.
“Today, we are a stronger Bank, better able to serve our customers with innovative products and professional services. We will continue to build on these successes, which are already starting to yields financial success for the bank,” he added.
The Chairman of the bank, Cyril Odu said; “The quality of our earnings is one of the critical pillars of Union Bank’s transformation efforts and the board and management are committed to delivering consistent growth in earnings to ensure that we are able to return to all shareholders in the near future.”
Odu, while reviewing the bank’s 2015 performance said the gross earnings for the Bank increased by eight per cent from N109.8 billion in 2014 to N118.4 billion in 2015. This includes N3.6 billion one-off gain on disposal of subsidiaries as we continued the implementation of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulation.
The bank, according to him, recorded a profit before tax increase, from N14.4 billion in 2014 to N14.6 billion in 2015, while operating expenses reduced by two per cent fromN57.2 billion to N56 billion in 2015.
He added that customers deposits went up by 12 per cent to N569.1 billion from N507.4 billion in 2014, which, according to him, reflect increase customer confidence in the Bank, and loans and advances also increased by 15 per cent to N349 billion.
The shareholders of the bank urged the management to do everything within its powers to pay dividend to shareholders, noting that the bank paid dividend last in 2008.
They also urged the bank to intensify efforts in its loan recovery in order to increase its deposit base and pay dividend to shareholders in the nearest future.
Specifically, a shareholder, Olatunji Okelana urged the bank to intensify efforts on recoveries in order to increase profitability.
He also expressed the need for the bank to ensure that all the subsidiaries are contribution to the overall growth of the bank.
Source:© Copyright Guardian Online
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