This archive report was first published on 13 November 2019.
On 12th November 2019, Equity Group released its financial results for the nine months to 30th September 2019, showing a net profit of Ksh17.46 billion, a 10% increase from Ksh15.58 billion in the same period the previous year.
The bank's loan book played a significant role in the growth, with lending to enterprises expanding by 21%. Loans and advances to customers grew by Ksh60.5 billion to Ksh348.9 billion, representing a 21% increase.
Of the loan portfolio, about 75% is held by enterprises, while 67% is spread across financing trade, housing, energy, water, transport, communication, tourism, restaurants, and hotels.
Equity Group's balance sheet grew by 21% to Ksh677 billion, driven mainly by a 21% growth in net loans and a 40% growth in cash and cash equivalents. Investments in government securities decelerated to only grow by 5% as more funds were reallocated to lending to the real economy.
The bank's net interest income grew by 10% to Ksh32.29 billion, while non-funded income increased by 14% to Ksh22.54 billion, lifting total income by 11% to Ksh54.83 billion.
Equity Group's non-performing loans stood at 8.3%, 430 basis points lower than the sector NPL ratio of 12.6%. NPL coverage on IFRS 9 stood at 78% in Kenya and 74% at the Group level.
The bank's regional subsidiaries continued to register impressive results, with their assets growing by 26% to reach a contribution of 27% of the Group's asset base.
Two of the subsidiaries, Rwanda and Uganda, registered a return on average equity (RoAE) of 23.9% and 21.2% respectively, covering their cost of capital. DRC continued its impressive growth in RoAE to 17.7%, enabling the Group to register a RoAE of 22.9% and a Return on Average Assets (RoAA) of 3.7%.
