Sidian Bank nine months profit down 90 per cent

Centum Group lending subsidiary Sidian Bank has booked a 90 per cent dip in profits across nine months to September 30 with earnings down at Ksh.8.1 million.

The sharp contraction in profits from Ksh.83.5 million last year is highly attributable to a shrink in the bank’s operating income.

Sidian’s net interest income for instance retracted by 17.3 per cent to Ksh.583 million while streams from non-interest funded (NFI) income fell to Ksh.973.1 million from Ksh.1.1 billion last year.

The bank incurred higher interest expenses of Ksh.1.1 billion from Ksh.786 million in 2019 indicated a higher cost of mobilizing customer deposits.

Nevertheless, Sidian trimmed its other operating costs by 11.8 per cent to Ksh.1.5 billion on lower loan-loss provisions which defied a growing industry trend to settle at Ksh.62 million from Ksh.266.3 million.

This is as the lender cut its exposure to bad loans with gross non-performing loans (NPLs) falling to Ksh.2.4 billion from Ksh.3.1 billion last year.

Sidian’s balance sheet meanwhile continued to expand in the period with assets growing to Ksh.33.6 billion on the back of a 23 per cent increase in customer loan disbursements to Ksh.21.6 billion.