KCB Group’s Half Year Pretax Profits Up By 5 Percent

KCB Group has registered a 5 percent jump in pretax profits for the first half-year according to results released on Thursday.

Kenya’s largest lender by assets registered 17.93 billion shillings in pretax profits at the time it is finagling the taking over of National Bank through a share-swap.

The after-tax profits stood at 12.7 billion shillings attributed to the growth in earnings from the growth in loan books and increased mobile channel activity.

KCB Group says it managed to boost its provisions for bad debts to 3 billion shillings during the period from 0.8 billion shillings the previous year.

The lender now has a presence in Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan with all the entities registering an improvement.

“We had a strong second quarter and witnessed continuous growth across our business segments. The investment in technology generated positive returns and further helped drive efficiency and deepen access to affordable services in all markets,” said Joshua Oigara, KCB’s CEO.

KCB Group’s balance sheet increased by 12 percent to 746.5 billion shillings. The deposits rose by 7 percent to 563.2 billion shillings during the period “supported by continued strong growth in personal and transaction accounts.”

Fees and commissions increased by 31 percent to 8.9 billion shillings as revenues from digital channels, in particular, KCB-MPESA grew significantly powered by their new platform that was launched last year.

The loan book rose by 14 percent to 478.7 billion shillings with a 12 percent growth in gross loans. The ratio of non-performing loans to total loans declined to 7.8 percent from 8.4 percent below the industry average of 12.7 percent.

“Our international bank subsidiaries continued with good performance, with all but Uganda delivering high double-digit earnings growth. This growth has been driven by balance sheet momentum with loans and advances registering a 23 percent growth,” said KCB.

KCB Group Board has approved the payment of an interim dividend of 1 shilling per share.

Read Also: NBK Takeover by KCB Rejected by Parliamentary Committee