United Bank for Africa (UBA) has released its financial results for the first half ended 30 June 2025, posting a pre-tax profit of N388.4 billion.
This marks a slight decline from N401.5 billion reported in the same period in 2024, but it remains a strong performance.
The bank’s solid pre-tax profit was supported by strong top-line growth, with interest income rising 32.89% to N1.3 trillion, up from N1 trillion in H1 2024.
Of this total, Treasury bills contributed the largest portion at N366.4 billion, followed by term loans to corporates at N319 billion.
Bonds under investment securities yielded N279.2 billion, while cash & bank balances, along with interest on loans & advances to banks, generated N113.2 billion and N105.6 billion, respectively.
However, interest expenses climbed sharply to N560.6 billion, up from N328.9 billion in the same period last year. Even so, the group’s net interest income still grew 14.59%, reaching N773 billion from N674.6 billion.
After factoring in an impairment charge of N35.1 billion, net interest income stood at N741 billion, up from N614.4 billion the previous year.
The group earned N147 billion from net fees and commission income, a modest 1.34% increase from N145 billion.
Yet, operating expenses put pressure on overall profitability.
Net trading and foreign exchange losses amounted to N10 billion, compared with a N98.1 billion gain last year.
Employee benefit expenses jumped 28.65% to N172.2 billion, while other ‘operating expenses’ rose slightly by 0.19% to N312.9 billion.
Consequently, pre-tax profit fell 3.28% to N388.4 billion. Post-tax profit, however, improved 6.06% to N335.5 billion, helped by a sharp drop in income taxes from N85.2 billion to N52.8 billion.
On the balance sheet, total assets grew to N33.2 trillion from N30.3 trillion, while retained earnings rose 12.85% to N1.6 trillion.
The directors are proposing an interim dividend of 25 kobo per share for the period ended 30 June 2025, compared with N2.00 per share in the same period last year.
This represents a payout ratio of 7.83%, up slightly from 7.3% in 2024, and a dividend yield of 1.4%, down from 8.9% a year earlier.
