Smarting from a bountiful financial year amid a national economic storm, Zenith Bank will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday, March 18 at Civic Centre,  Victoria Island, Lagos.

A message signed by Veritas Registrars, the stock brokerage managers for the bank, said the meeting would start at 9 am.

Shareholders of Zenith Bank have reasons to be optimistic going into the AGM.  The bank grew its profit before tax to N232 billion and declared dividend of N88 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018, amidst the nation’s  challenging economic environment.

Such bullish disposition has been attributed to the bank’s management efficiency which has kept it at the cutting edge of banking these past years. It was the first lender to announce its audited financial results for the year ended December 2018.

The bank showed significant resilience, ending the year with higher bottom-line and it did not fail to relish shareholders with high dividend.

The balance sheet showed gross earnings stood at N630.344 billion compared with N745.189 billion in 2017. It also grew its net interest income and operating income by 15 per cent and eight per cent respectively.

Zenith had adopted cost efficiency measures and it showed as the group recorded its lowest ever cost-to-income ratio at 49.3 per cent from 52.8 per cent in 2017. Net interest income improved to N295.594 billion compared with N257.991 billion in 2017.

The bank’s risk-centric strategy also ensured that cost of risk dipped significantly from 4.3 per cent in the prior year to 0.9 per cent in 2018 as reflected through the major drop in impairment charges by 81 per cent, from N98.29 billion to N18.372 billion.

Profit before tax (PBT) rose by 16.2 per cent from N199.319 billion to N231.685 billion, while profit after tax (PAT) grew by 11.3 per cent to N193.424 billion from N173.791 billion in 2017.

According to the bank, record PBT was achieved through the group’s optimisation of its cost of funds, cost-to-income ratio and cost of risk, ensuring that earnings per share strengthened by 11 per cent to N6.15.