• Performance commendable
Shareholders of the FBN Holdings Plc have expressed supports for the board and management of the group for the general corporate direction and performance of Nigeria’s oldest financial services group.
Shareholders said the decision to hold the group’s annual general meeting virtually was compliant with extant rules and recent trends.
They said careful consideration of the agenda of the forthcoming general meeting showed that the board and management were proactive and had good grasp of the future of the emerging financial services industry.
President, Association for the Advancement of Rights of Nigerian Shareholders (AARNS), Dr Faruk Umar, said the decision by the board of FBN Holdings to hold the meeting virtually neither violates the rules of Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) nor other regulatory bodies.
According to him, the virtual meeting provides for as much as space for robust discussion as the physical meeting with all shareholders with equal access to join the meeting virtually and make contributions.
He noted that shareholders also have the opportunity to send in their proxy forms to vote on any of the resolutions pointing out that whether physical or virtual, voting on resolution is typically by polling.
“This is not the first time the company, like other companies, is doing a virtual meeting, so the argument that the bank is trying to avoid robust discussion on the agenda does not hold water. Whether the meeting is physical or virtual, the voting is going to be by poll,” Umar said.
He said the move to recapitalise the bank through new capital raising is a proactive measure as one of the limitations of First Bank now is in its capital base.
“Compared to its competitors, First Bank is far behind. Then, as there is the possibility of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) asking banks to recapitalise, First Bank should be commended for being proactive in its step to raise new capital,” Umar said.
He said the possibility of the appointment of Lagos businessman, Mr. Femi Otedola, as a director of the bank is a healthy development, given his enormous board experience, adding that the appointment will not be exceptional as shareholders had appointed almost everybody on the board of the bank and its subsidiaries without any complaints.
“The current board, which was reconstituted by the CBN, has done very well, looking at the performance of the bank in 2022. The current Managing Director, Dr Adesola Adeduntan , has rightly justified the extension of his tenure, granted by CBN . The performance of the bank is unprecedented.
“We call on the CBN to ensure no shareholder disrupts the effort of the board of the bank in positioning it to achieve better results for shareholders,” Umar said.
National Coordinator, Pragmatic Shareholders Association, Mrs Bisi Bakare, also said the virtual meeting was in order while commending the performance of the group in recent period.
“As an investor and shareholder of FBN Holdings, I do not see anything illegal or wrong about virtual annual general meeting (AGM) because law permit them to do so. Secondly, they are not the first company or bank to do so. Out of many banks that held their AGMs this year so far, there were only three or four banks that did physical meeting,” Bakare said.
She noted that the 2022 results of the group showed commendable improvements, although there were still rooms for improvements.
According to her, while the 50 kobo dividend per share may be seen to be below the status of the bank, the steady growth and returns are commendable when viewed against the challenges the bank had gone through in recent period.
“The quarterly results for this year are better, but I hope the trend will continue for the remaining quarters of the year. So far, they have done very well, but they should improve in their dividend policy, it can be better,” Bakare said.
Several analysts have commended the performance of the group in the first half ended June 30, 2023.
FSDH Capital described the six-month results as “solid performance” noting that investors’ reaction to the results has been positive.
FBN Holdings posted N206 billion profit before tax in its unaudited results for the half year ended June 30, 2023. The group delivered strong growth in gross earnings and profit before tax resulting in N656.6 billion and N206.3 billion respectively for the first half of 2023 financial year.
Group Managing Director, FBN Holdings Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo, said the group has continued to deliver a strong financial performance despite the complex operating environment, due to its reinforced foundations, deep market understanding, strong risk management and execution capabilities.
“Across our businesses, we continue to focus on customer-centric innovations with strong transactional and digital capabilities supported by sound risk management practises to anticipate and creatively deliver products and services that delight the different customer segments that we serve. Furthermore, we are committed to leveraging technology via digital platforms to enhance operational efficiency,” Okonkwo said.
He noted that although the current operating environment remains challenging, the group is confident of successfully navigating the terrain in its transformation journey to deliver sustainable value to its stakeholders.
The report showed that commercial banking (FirstBank) achieved gross earnings of N607.7 billion, up 82.4 per cent against N333.2 billion recorded in June 2022. Net interest income stood at N232.6 billion, up 52.1 per cent compared to N152.9 billion recorded in June last year.
FirstBank’s profit before tax stood at N188.8 billion, up 214.6 per cent against N60.0 billion recorded in June 2022 while profit after tax stood at N174.9 billion, up 228.3 per cent on N53.3 billion recorded in June 2022. Also, total assets stood at N13.6 trillion, up 34.8 per cent over the past six months and compared with N10.1 trillion in same period of last year.
Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank-commercial banking group, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, said:
“In the first half of 2023, FirstBank Group delivered the strongest financial performance in the almost 130 years of the Bank’s history; with solid business momentum, increased revenue, and excellent returns. The result reflects the continued positive impact of our strategy and the tremendous progress that we have made in growing and transforming the Group. The result also highlights the resilience of our business model, customer relationships and institutional capabilities.
While the uncertainties in the macroeconomic and operating environment persist, I am confident that our purpose-driven strategy remains the right one and that our strong financial performance, alongside our business model and resilient portfolios, position the Group well to continue to provide the required support to our customers as well as create robust and sustainable value to our shareholders.
Given our extensive and diversified customer base of over 42 million customer accounts, our digital technology-enabled processing capabilities that ensure we process over 12% of industry’s payment volume, our future-proof and cutting-edge digital banking platforms with over 22 million users that enable us to process more than 95 per cent of customer-induced transactions on digital channels, the robustness of our balance sheet, and our institutionalised risk management culture and capabilities, we see a resilient franchise today and into the future.”
