05/11/2013
In 3Q13 results, Equity Banked posted a 6.75% growth in pre-tax earnings to KES 12.6B helped by a 29% reduction in interest expense from KES 5.4B in Q3 2012 to KES 3.8B in 2013. Interest income rose marginally by 4% y/y to KES 23.6B due to the decline in lending rates which reversed the high interest regime experienced last year. However net loans and advances grew by 20.74% from KES 131.3B to KES 158.6B. Non-funded income rose by 12% from KES 9.4Bn to KES 10.6Bn mainly driven by the agency banking transactions and commissions on diaspora remittances where the bank currently enjoys 16.1% in market share. As of September, USD 131.5M from the diaspora was channeled through the bank.
The bank currently has 8,612 active agents. Group’s balance sheet grew by 15.26% to KES 267.7Bn, while total shareholder funds stood at KES 46.9Bn from KES 39.2Bn a year ago.
The total operating income grew by 14% y/y to KES 30.3B, but on q/q it dipped by 0.10% (KES 10.02B vs. KES 10.03B). Total costs increased by 19% to KES 17.8B due to heavy Capex being undertaken by the bank to improve its operating infrastructure. As a result, cost to income (CIR) ratio deteriorated to 50.9% from 50.2% a year ago. The book quality worsened by 50bps to 5.5% driven by 156.5% growth in non-performing loans. The increase in NPLs is largely attributed to the current guidelines for loan provisions, where financial institutions are supposed to hold a loan provided for a period of 6 months in their provision. The highest NPL provisions by sectors are 7.01% and 6.82% for Small - Medium Enterprises and Micro Enterprises respectively.