Trustbond Mortgage shareholders applaud as bank’s PAT rises 13%

Shareholders of Trustbond Mortgage Bank Plc have commended the financial performance of the bank for the year ended December 31, 2017 during which its profit after tax from continuing operation rose about 13 percent to N23,443 million, up from N18,016 million in the previous year.

Trustbond is one of the few first generation mortgage banks licenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate nationally with a minimum of N5 billion capital base. It is an off-shoot of the defunct Intercontinental Homes, a subsidiary of defunct Intercontinental Bank Plc.

Despite the economic headwinds that characterized the year under review, particularly the high inflationary environment, the bank was able to reduce its cost-to-income ratio to 0.64, down from 0.89 in 2016. It also recorded total assets of N13, 593 billion in December 2017, representing 9 percent increase over the previous year’s figure of N12,411 billion.

Besides some business restructuring and the adoption of a new one which the bank did that yielded these results, it also undertook what it called ‘Share Reconstruction’, leading to the reduction of its accumulated loss to N886 million in its balance sheet, down from N2,177 billion.

The shareholders were excited by this performance and, according to Sunny Nwosu, a shareholder and member of the audit committee, “this shows that the management worked very hard and followed our advice. They were advised not to do certain things and they followed the advice. That caught shareholders admiration and they were happy”.

Though there was dividend pay-out, the shareholders were happy and optimistic. Binuyo Sharafa Teju, another shareholder, reasoned that for the management to have been able to reduce the bank’s debt burden to N886 million from N2,177 billion, in the next three years, they would wiped it out and be able to pay dividend.

“From what we have seen today, I want to believe that by the time we will be doing 2018 account, they may have wiped off the debt, creating avenue for dividend payment”, he said, adding that compared to other mortgage banks in the same market, Trustbond had done pretty well and was well ahead.

Adeniyi Akinlusi, the bank’s CEO, assured of a better performance in their 2018 results, saying, “in 2018, we will place greater emphasis on growing our mortgage business volume, while impacting positively on our environment by working with other stakeholders to improve home ownership for Nigerians”.

Etigwe Uwa, the chairman of the bank, shared this optimism, declaring that the outlook for the bank for 2018 financial year was positive, considering the relative stability experienced in the last quarter of 2017, the improved macro-economic indices, improving business climate and economic growth.

“With government’s renewed interest in prioritizing affordable housing, particularly for the low-income earners, the potentials in the mortgage market continue to increase while we are positioned to impact positively on the mortgage space”.

“We will continue to seek and implement systems and processes to enhance efficient service delivery, achieve cost optimization and strengthen rist management system”, he assured.

CHUKA UROKO