Equity Bank Records Half Year Profits Rise…Again

Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi told a briefing in Nairobi that the rise in profits was mainly due to a fall in costs. Total income grew 15 percent to 20.2 billion shillings, he said. ($1 = 87.4500 Kenyan shillings)

For those who wanted, they could have watched the announcement live on http://equitybankgroup.com/livestream/

Some of the important points in the earnings include:

• Loans and Advances up 20.9% to Kshs. 150.4 Billion.
• Customer Deposits up 21.8% to Kshs. 184 Billion.
• Interest Income from loans and advances up a paltry 2.9% to Kshs. 13.7 Billion.
• Interest Expenses on customers deposits down 34%. Saviour?
• Staff Costs up 13.1% to Kshs. 4.4 Billion.
• Net Non-Performing Loans up 221.4% to Kshs. 3.45 Billion.
• Loan Book Quality down to 2.3% from 0.86%
• Return on Assets – 4.8%
• Return on Equity – 28.2%

You can download the report here

Though the Non-Performing loans seem to have risen to ksh. 3.45 billion, some analysts are saying that this is due to the uncertainty during the election period.

According to Reuters, one of the key reasons why Equity is on the rise is their aggressive search for new markets. Equity bank  is now benefiting from the large number of Chinese Immigrants in Kenya.

Kenya’s Equity Bank has scored 2 billion shillings in new deposits in less than six months from a specialised branch in Nairobi to support local Chinese business, helping boost its half-year results, the company said on Monday.

The boost from the branch, benefitting from China’s push for more influence across Africa, helped drive a 17 percent rise in first half pretax profit for Kenya’s biggest bank by number of accounts to 9 billion shillings ($103 million).

“The Chinese are dominating the development of infrastructure in our country and they are creating SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to support the supply chain,” Chief Executive James Mwangi told Reuters.

“In just under six months of opening, it has built up a deposit base of over 2 billion shillings. That takes our traditional branches over 20 years to build,” Mwangi said.

James Mwangi Contributes to Meru University

In keeping with the banks motto of promoting education, the Chairman of Equity Bank, James Mwangi has made a personal donation of ksh. 100 million to Meru University.

Mr Mwangi, who is the chancellor of the newly-chartered public university, said the financial endowment would be used to develop an innovative technology and entrepreneurship complex at the institution.

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