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Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group has posted KSh15.3 billion ($139.70 million) in profits for the first six months of 2021, as earnings surged more than 100 percent in the period.
Figures contained in the financial statement of the Joshua Oigara-led financial services group revealed that its robust performance in the first half of 2021 was delivered by a growth in its primary business and a single-digit increase in its non-interest income for the period.
This led to the 14-percent increase in KCB’s operating income from KSh45 billion ($410.86 million) in the first half of last year to KSh51.2 billion ($467.48 million).
KCB Group is a financial services holding based in Nairobi, the capital and largest city in Kenya. It is also the nation’s second-largest bank in terms of asset base, behind Equity Group.
The group through its holding oversees KCB Kenya, incorporated in January 2016, and regional units in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
It also owns KCB Insurance Agency, KCB Capital, KCB Foundation, National Bank of Kenya and all associated companies.
Aside from the double-digit growth in its operating income in H1 2021, the bulk of the 102-percent growth in earnings in the period under review is attributable to its cost management strategies.
The group also recorded a 40-percent drop in its provisions for bad debt and paid less than 31 percent of its profits to the tax authorities, compared to the 41 percent it paid last year.
All these pushed its profits up by 102 percent from the KSh7.6 billion ($69.39 million), which it reported last year to its recent KSh15.3 billion in mid-year profits ($139.70 million).
In its books, customer deposits increased to KSh786 billion ($7.18 billion), compared to KSh758.2 billion ($6.92 billion) last year. At the same time, its loan book expanded by eight percent to KSh607 billion ($5.54 billion).
Kimathi Kiambi, the CFO of the leading financial services group, stated in a note from his office in Nairobi that the group’s subsidiaries posted steady growth in the half-year period despite challenges in its operating environment.
“We have seen a strong performance and contribution from our subsidiaries, a 54-percent growth in profit before tax. Total contribution to profit-before-tax from the subsidiaries outside of Kenya now stands at 15.2 percent,” he said.
As of press time 11:25 AM (UTC), Aug. 19, shares in the group were trading at KSh47.1 ($0.4301), 5.23-percent lower than its opening price of Ksh49.70 ($0.4537) this morning on the Nairobi bourse.
Oigara is the CEO of KCB Group.
