Equity Group Q1 2024: Strong Growth, NPLs Up, RoAE at 29.1%

May 13, 2024, 06:00 AM

Equity Group Holdings PLC reported a significant increase in its financial performance for the first quarter of 2024. The Kenyan bank's total assets grew by 9.6% to KES 1.7 trillion, while net interest income surged by 28.4% to KES 27.8 billion. Provisions for bad loans also rose sharply by 74.5% to KES 6.1 million. However, foreign exchange trading income declined by 25.6% to KES 3.8 billion. The bank's profit after tax increased by 25.2% to KES 16 billion, with earnings per share also rising by 25.2% to KES 4.08. Gross non-performing loans (NPLs) saw a significant increase of 50% to KES 120.4 billion. Equity Bank's stock price rose by 2.6% at the opening following the announcement of these results. The Group's Return on Average Equity (RoAE) stood at 29.1%. CEO James Mwangi commented on the elevated NPLs, stating, 'We believe that NPLs will remain elevated for quite some time...we see from the fourth quarter, we'll see that starting to come down.'