Biggest Kenyan bank’s 9-month profit rises 78%

Bloomberg

Equity Group Holdings Plc’s profit soared in the first nine months of the year as the economy recovered and the Kenyan lender generated more income from business loans and the
government securities.
Net income from January through September grew by 78% to 26.3 billion shillings ($236 million) from a year earlier, the East African nation’s biggest bank by market value said in a statement on Monday.
“We expect non-funded income to grow faster because we are focusing on cross-border trade,” Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi told investors in an earnings briefing.
Net interest income increased 23% to 48.5 billion shillings as the loan book grew by the same margin to 559 billion shillings, Mwangi said.
Provisions for loan losses shrinks 65.2% to 5.14 billion shillings, while gross non-performing loans increased 7% to 56.2 billion shillings.
Equity Group is now the biggest bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where deposits increased 57%, a faster pace than growth in its home base. The unit may overtake the Kenyan business, driven by cross-border trade financing, according to Mwangi.
The lender is looking to catalyse cross-border trade by linking small businesses in Kenya with those in other nations,
including South Africa, under
its trade-finance program,
according to Mwangi.
Kenya expects its economy, East Africa’s largest, to expand by around 6% this year following a contraction in 2020. The stock has advanced 43% in the past 52 weeks. The Nairobi Securities Exchange Ltd 20 gained 10%.
The shares traded 4.2% higher by 11:55 am in Nairobi, the sharpest intraday gain in more than six weeks. Equity Group trades at 5.5 times its estimated earnings per share for the coming year.