NIGERIA: Access Holdings PLC recently finally released its long awaited Audited Financial Results for June 30, 2025.Recall that they had notified the investing public of the delay in publishing their half year result twice, engendered by the complexity of the post-completion audit activities of their newly acquired sub-subsidiaries within the banking group, and getting Central Bank of Nigeria's approval for the result.
The delay in releasing the result had led to some shareholders selling off their stocks in the Financial institution, as some of them had expressed fear on the underlying reason for the delay. It was further exacerbated when a recent news revealed Access Bank's CEO, Roosevelt Ogbonna's splurge of millions of dollars on a UK property. While some investors did not see anything wrong with that news, others expressed concern, as Bankers are generally expected to be conservative in their vanity pursuits, especially in the eyes of curious and inquisitive customers and investors. Another school of thought expressed by investors was that that move by Roosevelt did not express confidence in the future of the Financial institution and its ability to create wealth for shareholders, which was discouraging, considering that CEOs of banks like Zenith, Fidelity, e.t.c., had in recent times been deepening ownership in their financial institutions by buying more stake running into hundreds of millions of Naira, thereby signaling positivity to, and boosting confidence of shareholders and investors.
The result highlighted significant improvements in Gross earnings, Interest income, and Net Fees and Commission income. Impairment charge increased significantly from ₦122bn to ₦237bn, as Profit before tax declined by 8.1% to close at ₦320bn and Profit after Tax declined by 23.3% to close at ₦216bn, while Total comprehensive loss stood at ₦62.3bn. Return on Average Equity also declined from 22.4% to 11.4%, while Non Performing Loans Ratio now stands at 2.68%. Earnings per share closed at ₦3.72, compared to ₦7.61 as at H1 previous year.
Banking group subsidiaries contributed 65% to the Banking group’s profit before tax (PBT) in H1 2025, while non-banking subsidiaries maintained a strong growth momentum. For Access - ARM Pensions, financial performance was robust, with revenue up 29.9% to ₦21.0 billion and profit before tax up 65.1% to ₦13.1 billion. The business delivered a solid ROAE of 48.1%, a cost-to-income ratio of 35.1%, and a PBT margin of 62.1%, underscoring strong operational efficiency and profitability. Hydrogen Payments recorded a 40.5% growth in top-line revenue compared to H1 2024. Profit before tax (PBT) grew by 273% year-on-year. The total transaction value processed increased by 211%, reaching ₦41.1 trillion in H1 2025, up from ₦13.8 trillion in H1 2024. Access Insurance Brokers has sustained strong momentum, recording a 125% year-on-year increase in gross written premium, 146% growth in revenue, and a 161% improvement in profit before tax (PBT). Oxygen X, the company's digital lending arm, has sustained strong momentum since launch in Q3 2024, delivering ₦5.4 billion in revenue and ₦2.2 billion in profit before tax in H1 2025.
As at the time of publishing this article, the bank had not declared an interim dividend for the year, which is very disappointing for shareholders. Also worthy of note is the glaring divestment by Estate of Herbert O. Wigwe (the late GMD/CEO who was deceased on February 9, 2024) of over 3.045 billion shares between December 31, 2024 and June 30, 2025, which was not absorbed by any of the other substantial shareholders. In addition, in the notes to the results, employees earning above ₦45m increased from 77 to 737, as H1 employee expenses increased from ₦159bn to ₦229bn; while AMCON surcharge increased from ₦112bn in the previous year to ₦154bn this year.
It will be interesting to see how investors will react to this half year result and recent developments in the coming weeks. Buy, Sell, or hold? Time will tell.
Thank you for reading, and happy investing.
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