The Kenya Commercial Bank Group (KCB) yesterday announced a third quarter pre-tax profit of 22.9 bn. This represents a 18.3% growth from Ksh.19.3 bn over the same period last year. KCB Group recorded a 27% growth in net interest income from Ksh.28.3 bn to Ksh.36.1 bn driven by asset book growth, better yields and reduction in cost of funds.
Net loans and advances were up 5% from Ksh.347.6 bn to Ksh.364.5 bn during the period. This was largely driven by the Kenyan business which registered an 8% growth. This was helped by the fcat that KCB’s loan portifolio is fairly diversified across all sectors which reflects the variety of the Kenyan economy.
KCB’s total assets declined by 6% from Ksh.607.2 bn to Ksh. 570.1 bn due to currency devaluation in the South Sudan market. Total assets of the group without the South Sudan component increased by 10%. The devaluation of the South Sudan currency also led to a 7% decline in deposits. However, the Kenyan operation’s customer deposits had an impressive growth of 14% as a result of the collapse of the three banks as customers sought a place where they felt their money was safe.
Total expenses increased by 7% to support business growth, investment in channels and infrastructure. Provisions for bad debts were down 11% to Ksh 3.4 bn. The overall Group non-performing loans declined by Ksh.1.9 billion on enhanced credit process and recoveries.
The number of users on mobile phone stands at 10.2 million while the number of mobile accounts grew by 98% to 8.3 million. The registered customers on mobile currently make up 75% of the total customers in the bank. Over Ksh.17 billion has been disbursed in loans over the past 18 months. Mobile loans hit an average of 80,000 per day on daily requests in the month of September. The success of this platform has enabled the bank to process up to 91% of their total loan transactions in the past nine months of the year.
The core capital to total risk weighted assets at 14.7% (CBK minimum-10.5%), total capital to total risk weighted assets at 15.9% (CBK minimum-14.5%). The high capital and liquidity ratios mean the Bank has a strong headroom to fund bigger projects in the East African region and sustain a profitable business model that delivers impressive returns for shareholders.
Moving forward the bank intends to focus more on technology to drive its future business. To do this they plan to launch a FinTech business that will complement their business landscape for centralizing their digital platform in order to provide seamless services to their customers.
You can find the financial results here.