United Capital Plc, (NSE: UCAP, Bloomberg: UCAP: NL, Financial Times: UCAP: LAG) announced its Unaudited Financial Statements for the period ended March 31, 2020.
During the period under review, the Group showed significant growth in key indicators despite the challenging global economic climate.
Total Revenue in Q1 2020 soared to N1.92bn from N1.45bn in Q1 2019, an increase of 32% while PAT grew by 54% YOY. Total Assets grew by 31%, being well-financed by a 35% increase in Liabilities and 6% increase in Shareholder’s fund.
Gross Earnings grew by 32.3% to N1.9bn from N1.5bn in the previous quarter.
Profit before tax grew by 53.4% to N1.2bn.
Profit after tax grew by 53.9% to N991m.
Net Assets grew by 5.8% to N20.7bn from N19.6bn.
The company’s gross earnings increased to N1.9 billion from N1.5 billion in the same period of last year, while investment income decreased to N649.5 million from N771.7 million, majorly as a result of the decline in fixed deposits and investments in securities.
According to the report made available to Brand Spur, the earnings of United Capital showed that personnel expenses increased in the first three months of 2020 to N324.5 million from N246.4 million, while other operating expenses dropped to N378.2 million from N399.3 million, with total expenses at N742.6 million at Q1 2020 as against N684.4 million in Q1 2019.
The results revealed that the profit before tax stood at N1.2 billion in the period under review compared with N766.9 million in the same period of 2019.
And after a reduction of N185.1 million as tax, higher than N122.7 million in Q1 2019, United Capital was left with a profit after tax of N991.3 million as of March 31, 2020, in contrast to N644.2 million as at March 31, 2019.
While commenting on the group’s performance the Group CEO, Mr. Peter Ashade, had this to say:
“The Year 2020 has posed a lot of challenges to the Nigerian economy – as we saw a decline in oil prices- the operating environment was also impacted negatively, with the exchange rate becoming more volatile, continued fall in rates in the money market as well as bearish sentiments in the capital market. Our business was not immune to these challenges; however, the Group was able to endure the first quarter of the year. Thanks to the well-articulated and diligent implementation of our plans set out last year, we were able to deliver a 32% year on year increase in revenue and 53% increase in PBT. This increase was generated basically from our margin on investments and the 55% YOY increase achieved on our Fees and commission income as well as a 149% growth in net trading income. Our investment income shrank this quarter due to the drop in returns in the money market.
“As we work into the coming quarters, we are constantly reviewing our strategy in light of the current global pandemic in the wake of COVID-19. As a Group, we were able to invoke our business continue framework which has worked immensely well over the past few weeks as we have been able to stay afloat with our work-force working remotely to ensure the continued operations of our business”.
Discussing the result further he stressed that;
“In line with our initial strategy for the 2020 business year, we shall continue to push further our market diversification and cost-optimization initiatives, as well as implement, phased automation of our business processes whilst upholding our commitment to ensuring a significant improvement in our value delivery to all our stakeholders”.
