The Co-operative Bank has reported a net profit of Sh16.5 billion for the year ended December 2021 an increase of 52 per cent.
The lender’s profits rose from Sh10.8 billion last year supported by a 12 per cent jump in operating income from loans, fees and subsidiaries including Kingdom Bank.
Net interest income grew 13 per cent to Sh41 billion while non-funded income grew 11 per cent to Sh19 billion.
The lender which bought Jamii Bora Bank and renamed it Kingdom says the new subsidiary gross profits have crossed half a billion.
“Kingdom Bank Limited has contributed a profit before tax of Sh512.4 million in FY2021 compared Sh124.2 million reported last year,” Cooperative Bank managing director Gideon Muriuki said.
The bank also recorded a pre-tax profit of Sh22.6 billion for the full year 2021 a 59 per cent growth from the Sh14.3 billion recorded over a similar period in 2020.
The earnings raced past the pre-pandemic profit of Sh14.3 billion in 2019, signalling that the lender has joined its peers in overcoming the disruptive virus.
Non-interest income also grew by 11 per cent to Sh19.4 billion, to take the total operating income for the year ended December 2021 to Sh60.4 billion.
The board has recommended payment of Sh1 per share as dividend, amounting to Sh5.86 billion, being the same as for the previous year.
The pay-out is the same as for the previous two years when other listed banks suspended or slashed dividends, citing increased economic uncertainty brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Most of the lenders have reinstated or raised dividends in the review period, with Standard Chartered Bank Kenya making its highest-ever pay-out of Sh19 per share or an aggregate of Sh7.1 billion.
Co-op Bank’s earnings growth rode on a 14 per cent increase in total interest income to Sh55.6 billion as the loan book and investment in government securities expanded 8.2 per cent and 13.6 per cent to Sh310.1 billion and Sh184 billion respectively.
Kingdom Bank, which previously traded as Jamii Bora Bank, posted a net income of Sh497.7 million in the review period, emerging from a net loss of Sh10.1 million the year before.
Co-op Bank acquired a 90 per cent stake in the subsidiary in August 2020 for Sh1 billion in a rescue deal after the original shareholders balked at providing additional capital to the institution which was in losses.
The acquisition was part of Co-op Bank’s strategy of growing in the Kenyan market where it believes opportunities are yet to be exhausted.
