UBA Assures Shareholders on High Returns

The Group Managing Director, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, has assured shareholders that the bank is focused on delivering full year results that will adequately reward them.

Oduoza gave this assurance while commenting on the bank’s results for the nine months ended September 30, 2013.
UBA, which posted a profit after tax of N43 billion, supported economic activities significantly, growing its loan portfolio to N870 billion. This represented an increase of about 27 per cent compared with N687 billion for 2012 full year.
Explaining the growth in the group’s loan portfolio, said it was “in line with our guidance for loan growth,” adding:  “We increased our exposure to the power, upstream oil and gas and telecoms sectors of the economy.”

“Our bank remains resilient and our focus is on delivering a set of full year results that will be able to adequately reward our shareholders. We are already reaping the benefits of operating an African strategy that is anchored on our in-depth knowledge of every market we operate in,” Oduoza stated.

UBA played actively in the financing of big ticket deals, especially in the power sector recently, with potential long-term impact on the bank’s future profitability.   Some of the major deals UBA actively participated in include taking up $120 million (N19.44billion) of the financing in respect of Transcorp Ughelli Power Plant.

The bank equally acted as mandated lead arranger, underwriting the entire facility of $122 million for Kann Utilities’ acquisition of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, financing the payment of 75 per cent acquisition of 60 per cent equity stake in Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company and acting as the lead arranger for N9.6 billion loan to finance the payment of 75 per cent of Aura’s 60 per cent equity stake in Jos Electricity Distribution Company.

Also customer confidence in the bank’s brand continues to rise as total deposits grew by 22.1 per cent to N2.17 trillion.
Explaining the significant increase in deposits, Chief Finance Officer of UBA Plc, Mr. Ugochukwu Nwaghodoh, said: “The bank was able to effectively leverage its branch network in Nigeria and across 18 countries in Africa to generate cheap deposit.”