Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) grew its assets value by more than Ghs 623 million for the period between end-March 2020 and end-March 2021.
Posted assets value of UMB for Q1 2021 according to its unaudited Q1 2021 Financial Statement, amounted to Ghs 3.3 billion from the posted figure of Ghs 2.7 billion in Q1 2020.
Increment in the bank’s holdings of investment securities, cash and cash equivalent and loans to customers mainly accounted for the witnessed growth in the bank’s assets.
Value of investment securities, cash and cash equivalent, and loans expanded from Ghs 318 million to 478 million, Ghs 384 million to Ghs 679 million and Ghs 889 million to Ghs 1.2 billion from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021.
Total liabilities for the period under review, also saw an increment of some Ghs 578 million. Total liabilities at end-March 2020 stood at Ghs 2.2 billion but rose to Ghs 2.8 billion at end-March 2021.
The recorded increment in liabilities was on the account of growth in deposits from customers, employee benefit obligations and ‘other liabilities.’
Deposits from customers grew from Ghs 1.8 billion in Q1 2020 to Ghs 2.4 billion in Q1 2021, with employee benefit obligations also expanding from Ghs 4.6 million to Ghs 4.9 million.
‘Other liabilities’ within the same period, also increased from Ghs 159 million to Ghs 176 million.
UMB for Q1 2021, posted a profit of Ghs 8.4 million. The posted profit indicates an increase of Ghs 2.8 million from the recorded profit of Ghs 5.6 million in Q1 2020.
With a posted profit of Ghs 8.4 million in Q1 2021, shareholders of the UMB will enjoy dividend payments of Ghs 0.75 pesewas for Q1 2021. An increment of Ghs 0.25 pesewas from Q1 2020 dividend payment of Ghs 0.50 pesewas.
Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) as a ratio of gross loans, was marginally reduced by UMB in Q1 2021, thereby marginally improving its loan asset quality.
NPLs posted for Q1 2021 was 13.46 percent from the recorded NPLs of 14.92 percent in Q1 2020.
The bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) however, decreased from 20.89 percent in Q1 2020 to 18.02 percent in Q1 2021, which is well above the Bank of Ghana’s 13 percent regulatory requirement.
