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First City Monument Bank Plc (FCMB) has released its financials for the year, ended December 31, 2012 and the first quarter results ended March 31, 2013 (unaudited), declaring profit after tax of N15.3billion for the financial year ended December 31, 2012 and a profit after tax of N4.2billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013. The bank also declared a bonus of one additional share for every 25 shares held by its shareholders. The audited accounts for the full year ended December 31, 2012 recorded a profit after tax of N15.3billion, an increase of 256% over 2011. Similarly, profit before tax rose significantly by 252.1% to N16.23billion in 2012. The financial report for 2012 also showed that gross earnings was up by 54.3% from N75.70billion realised in 2011 to N116.83billion, indicating an increasing market share for FCMB. Also, the financial institution’s loans and advances improved by 10.7% to N357.798billion last year compared to N323.353billion the previous year. As a demonstration of its resilience, the bank’s total assets equally rose to N909billion as at the end of 2012, as against N602billion in 2011. FCMB’s merger with the defunct FinBank also impacted positively on the performance of the bank as its operating income grew by 48%. In the same vein, FCMB maintained the momentum of its last year performance into this year as the result for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013 showed a profit after tax of N4.2billion. This represents a rise of 3% from the N4.10billion made in the corresponding period of 2012. Gross earnings within the three months period also witnessed a leap from N26.12billion as at March 31, 2012 to N31.41billion as at March 31 last year. Speaking on these results, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of FCMB, Mr. Ladi Balogun, said that, “we are pleased to have returned to profitability after the challenges of 2011 doing so, whilst also successfully executing the recent merger makes the year’s performance all the more remarkable”. He added, “the trend continued in the first quarter of 2013 and we expect our performance to gather momentum as we begin to improve productivity of the immense resources and capacity we have acquired”. Mr. Balogun pointed out that going forward, attention would be placed on improving efficiency, customer experience and employee morale and productivity in the enlarged entity, which has set a target to be among the top five banks in Nigeria by the year 2015. The FCMB boss expressed confidence that, “these will translate into greater profitability and sustainable market share growth in 2013 and beyond”. Analysts have described the results as, “healthy and an indication that the bank is well positioned to compete at the highest level in the Nigerian banking sector”. Following the merger with FinBank, the FCMB group now has 2 million customers, 280 branches and cash centres nationwide with presence in the United Kingdom and South Africa. The financial institution has also secured approval to adopt the Holding Company structure.
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