Date: November 14, 2018 

Access Financial Services Limited (AFS) for the six months ended September 30, 2018 reported $787.27 million in total interest income, a 20% increase relative to the $658.40 million recorded in 2017. Of this, interest income from loans amounted to $784.71 million (2017: $651.88 million), while interest income from securities totalled $2.56 million (2017:$ 6.52 million). Total interest income for the quarter amounted to $385.61 million, a 22% increase on the $315.36 million reported for 2017.

Interest expense charged for the period totalled $48.54 million, a 15% decline compared with the $57.06 million booked in 2017. This resulted in AFS booking a net interest income of $738.73 million for the period, 23% more than the $601.34 million in 2017.

Net fees and commission income for the period under review amounted to $70.32 million, a 64% decline from the $197.32 million in 2017.

AFS booked a total of $809.05 million for Net Trading Income, which increased slightly by 1% relative to the $798.66 million in 2017.

AFS reported income from Money Services and Other Income of $845,000 (2017: $844,000) and $22.99 million (2017:$31.71 million) respectively. Foreign exchange also posted a gain of $18.53 million (2017: $8.64 million). As such, other operating income for the period totalled $42.36 million compared with $41.20 million in 2017.

AFS reported operating expenses for the quarter amounted to $224.42 million (2017: $235.22 million), while for the period, $422.98 million (2017: $460.31 million) was booked. Of this:

• Staff Costs totalled $205.68 million (2017: $177.98 million)
• Allowance for Credit Losses amounted to $50.12 million (2017: $122.83 million)
• Depreciation & Amortization amounted to $18.20 million (2017: $13.09 million)
• Marketing Expenses totalled $14.58 million (2017: $12.47 million)
• Other Operating Expenses booked for the period totalled $134.40 million (2017: $133.94 million)

AFS reported profit before taxation of $428.43 million for the period relative to $379.54 million recorded in 2017. Following a taxation amount of $32.81 million (2017: $33.15 million), AFS booked a profit for the period of $395.62 million, a 14% increase relative to the $346.38 million recorded for the comparable period in 2017. Profit for the quarter totalled $178.90 million, 13% higher than the $158.13 million reported in 2017.

Consequently earnings per share for the period amounted to $1.44 (2017: 1.26) while EPS for the quarter $0.65 (2017:$0.58). The trailing twelve months earnings per share amounted to $2.79. The total number of shares used in the calculations amounted to 274,509,840 Additionally, AFS’s stock price closed at $49.50 as at the end of trading on November 14, 2018.

Balance Sheet Highlights:

As at September 30, 2018, the company’s assets totalled $3.96 billion, up 17% from $3.39 billion in 2017. This increase was largely attributable to ‘Loans and Advances’ which amounted to approximately $3.45 billion, $766.24 million more than $2.68 billion in 2017.

Shareholder’s equity as at September 30, 2018 stood at $2.65 billion (2017: $2.03 billion) resulting in book value per share of approximately $9.67 (2017: $7.38).

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