United Capital Plc Reports Balanced Gross Earnings of N8.915 and PBT of N5.5bn

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United Capital Plc, one of Africa’s leading investment banking groups, announced its Audited 2017 Full Year Financial Results, showing a turnover of N8.9billion and profit before tax of N5.5billion, for the year ended 31 December 2017. The Company delivered an annualized Earnings Per Share of 73Kobo and declared a Dividend of 35 Kobo per Share.

Despite the uncertain economic environment of 2017, United Capital generated Gross earnings of N8.9bn, a slight decline of 1% from N9bn in 2016. Operating income improved by 5% from N6.7bn in 2016 to N7.0bn in 2017. PBT declined by 13% from N6.4bn to N5.5bn owing to non-recurrent foreign exchange revaluation gains of N1.3bn realised in 2016. In 2016, the Group recognized one-off foreign exchange gains of N1.3bn following the devaluation of the naira. Shareholders’ funds improved by 18% from N14.2bn to N16.8bn despite a drop in Total asset by 15% attributable to significant payouts to bondholders by the Trustee business. Despite sustained macroeconomic challenges in, United Capital Plc has maintained its position as a market leader delivering innovative solutions to its clients across its businesses.

The rise in group operating income was driven by efficient execution of key mandates in investment banking, trusteeship and securities brokerage and by the introduction of innovative products such as the Nigerian Eurobond Fund and the Wealth for Women Fund and by improvements in operations and IT capabilities, ensuring the optimization of value and retention of a significant proportion of earnings.

United Capital continues to pursue a clear and consistent strategy, which will always deliver a strong performance for shareholders, and we remain positive about our future opportunities within the Nigerian and African market, ” stated Group Chief Executive Officer, Oluwatoyin Sanni.

Highlights of 2017 successes in key business areas include, but are not limited to:

  • The launch of two new Mutual Funds – Wealth for Women Fund and Nigerian Eurobond Fund.
  • Financial Advisory services to the UBA US$500 million Eurobond.
  • Issuing House and Joint Trustee Mandate to the LASG N100Billion Bond Issue.
  • Received an ‘A-’ Credit Rating from top Pan African Credit Rating Agency, Agusto & Co, an upgrade from the firm’s ‘BBB+’ rating the previous year (2015).
  • Awarded Most Outstanding Company of the year 2017 by the Peral Award Board.

United Capital Plc remains committed to achieving our goal of building Africa’s Leading Investment Banking Group and to delivering service excellence across all of our business units in pursuit of our strategic objectives in 2018.