ACCESS Bank Ghana Plc (ACCESS) performed below market watchers’ expectation after releasing its unaudited HY-2017 earnings reports. The Nigeria-owned bank listed on the local bourse after completing a successful IPO at the close of last year 2016. Profit before Tax (PBT) fell marginally by 1.33%; from GHS 40,806,000 in HY-2016 to GHS 40,262,000 in HY-2017.
Net Interest Income also dipped by 13.76% to GHS 88,331,000 in the first six months in 2017. Despite the bank recording 93.54% improvement in impairment loss on financial assets during the period under review, total operating income of the bank fell by 12.90%; from GHS 137,728,000 in HY-2016 to GHS 119,967,000 in HY-2017. Tax relief during the period under review led to Net Profit inching up by 6.74%; from GHS 26,405,000 in HY-2016 to GHS 28,184,000. Earnings per share (EPS) remained unchanged compared to prior year currently pegged at GHS 0.24.
Total Borrowings of the bank fell marginally by 3.54%. Customer Deposits also fell by 170.52% during the period. Additionally, loans & Advances went down by 7.07% reflecting the reduction in exposure risk with respect to the bank’s loan book. Shielding the bank’s loan portfolio from credit risk resulted in a Non Performing Loan (NPL) ratio of 20% in HY-2017 from 25.71% in HY-2016. Total Assets increased by 5.15%; from GHS 2,679,608,000 in HY-2016 to GHS 2,817,653,000.
GN Analysts are of the opinion that the bank’s performance is yet to be impacted by the full results of the capital raised during the IPO last year. An improvement in the company’s fundamentals during HY-2017 would have been an appropriate impact of the operational expansions, improvement in the IT infrastructure of the bank and payment of pre-existing debt the IPO aimed at. The share price currently trades at GHS 4.00 per share after losing GHS 0.10 form year-open. ACCESS currently records YTD price change of -2.44% on the bourse. GN Analysts recommend a HOLD on the shares of ACCESS for now.
Trading activity on the bourse ended with 4 gainers (FML, GOIL, GCB and SCB) and 2 losers (EGH and GGBL) yesterday. GCB shares topped the trading chart in terms of volume as 601,200 shares worth GHS 3,126,186.00 changed hands. Returns on the Composite and Financial Stock Index pegged at 32.87% and 34.64% respectively.
Trading activity on the Alternative Market was hushed as no shared changed hands on the GAX.
HORDS currently lead record capital gains on the GAX, appreciating by 25% from 2016 year open.
The Cedi LOST marginally to all the major trading currencies on the inter-bank market yesterday. The local currency exchanged at a mid-rate of GHS 4.33747 to the USD, GHS 5.7105 to the GBP and GHS 5.1110 to the EURO.
The GCFM Cedi index, a measure of the holistic performance of the Cedi on the inter-bank market now records a year-to-date depreciation of 8.39%.
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