UBA Nigeria Declines on Full-Year Loss: Lagos Mover
February 08, 2012, 9:32 AM ESTBy Vincent Nwanma
(Corrects period for pretax profit in second paragraph.)
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- United Bank for Africa Plc, a Nigerian lender with operations in 19 countries, retreated after saying it expects to post a loss for last year.
The stock fell 0.5 percent, after earlier declining the maximum daily limit of 5 percent, to close at 1.99 naira in Lagos trading.
The bank expects a loss for 2011, “driven principally by one-off write-offs against earnings, including those arising from the transfer of loans to the Asset Management Company of Nigeria,” it said in a statement e-mailed from the Nigerian stock exchange today. Management doesn’t anticipate similar write-offs in 2012, and pretax profit is seen at 15 billion naira ($94 million) in the first quarter of this year, the company said.
Nigeria implemented banking reforms following a debt crisis in 2008 and 2009 triggered by loans given to stock market speculators. The central bank fired eight chief executives of the country’s 24 banks and set up Amcon to buy the debts and stabilize the banking sector. The central bank introduced a December common year-end for the country’s lenders.
--Editors: Peter Branton
To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Nwanma in Lagos at vnwanma@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dulue Mbachu at dmbachu@bloomberg.net UBA NL <Equity>
