Stanbic posts Shs 155 billion profit in first half of 2021

Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited (SUHL), a member of the Standard Bank Group, has demonstrated business resilience, to post a robust performance in the first half of 2021 with strong growth across all key metrics.

In a statement, the company said the strong performance was largely driven by Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited, the anchor subsidiary.

According to Stanbic’s half year financial results released on Friday August 6, 2021, customer deposits increased to Shs 5.7 trillion in June 2021 compared to Shs 5.2 trillion in June 2020, indicating an 9.5% growth.

Its assets also grew by 9.8% driven by an increase in loans and advances amounting to Shs 3.8 trillion compared to Shs 3.4 trillion in June 2020.

SUHL earned Shs 154.9 billion in profit after tax representing an impressive 21.5% growth from the same period last year.

Growth in profit was mainly driven by strong growth in trade revenue which accounted for Shs 37.5 billion as well as better management of loan impairments, which reduced by Shs 11.7 billion as compared to the same period last year.

The company remains well capitalised above the minimum regulatory requirement, ensuring that it is in a strong position to continue financing the private sector through the second half of the year.

Apart from Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited, other SUHL subsidiaries are: Stanbic Properties Limited; Stanbic Business Incubator Limited; FlyHub Uganda Limited, and SBG Securities Uganda Limited.

The creation of the holding company corporate structure started in 2018 and was completed in 2020.

Delicate balance

Andrew Mashanda, the chief executive for Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited said the first six months of 2021 have been quite challenging especially with the second wave of Covid-19.

"Businesses and individuals have felt the impact of the pandemic and as an institution we have done much to support our customers, our staff, and communities through this unprecedented period. Despite the attendant challenges, we waded through, to post what our shareholders will appreciate as resilient performance, with good growth across all key performance indicators. Our Return on Equity stood at 23.2% up 1.6% year on year. This strong performance was led by our anchor and largest subsidiary, Stanbic Bank Uganda limited (SBUL)," he said.

Anne Juuko, chief executive Stanbic Bank Uganda said they saw significant growth in the small and medium enterprises segment as they continued to support them through the challenging period.

"Overall, through our financing to boost private sector growth, we saw loans and advances grow by 9.8% to Shs 3.8 trillion from Shs 3.4 trillion in June 2020. We made deliberate interventions to drive economic recovery in a number of ways including the creation of the Enterprise Economic Restart fund (EERF) that aims to raise and provide up to Shs 350 Billion ($100 Million) in low-cost financing to sectors and groups impacted by the pandemic. We also launched a new value proposition aimed at revitalizing the operations for SACCO’s and VSLA’s across Uganda," Juuko said.

Going forward, Mashanda said their priority for the next half is to focus on investing in technology and digital solutions to enhance service offerings and customer experience.

"We shall also focus on continuously managing our risks across all areas of operations to ensure business continuity and implement the sustainability priorities as a true testament to our purpose-Uganda is our home, and we drive her growth," Mashanda said.