Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) Plc, Nigeria’s largest banking group by market capitalisation, reported a 50% drop in its first half 2025 profit as non-core income plunged, its earnings report showed on Tuesday.
The group’s after-tax profit fell to ₦449.01 billion ($289.3 million) from ₦905.57 billion ($602.5 million) in H1 last year, marking its first earnings decline since H1 2022. Other income plunged 83.5 percent to ₦108.8 billion ($70.1 million), eroding gains from higher interest income.
The results came a few weeks after the parent company of GTBank became the first Nigerian financial institution to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), a key step in its global expansion strategy.
The July 9 listing pushed its market capitalisation above ₦3 trillion, making it the first Nigerian bank to reach the milestone.
“GTCO’s audited H1 2025 results showed a 31.5% year-on-year increase in interest income to ₦812.4 billion ($523.5 million), supported by the sustained high-yield environment and growth in earning assets,” analysts at CSL Research said in a note on Tuesday.
Further analysis of the financial report shows that net loans and advances to customers rose 20.5% versus full-year 2024, while interest expense jumped 42.5% year-on-year, lifting funding costs to 2.2% in June 2025.
Customer deposits grew 18.6% over December 2024, and net interest income climbed 28.6% year-on-year to ₦632.2 billion ($407.4 million).
Operating expenses increased by 28.1% year-on-year, while total operating income fell 30.1%, worsening the cost-to-income ratio ex-provisions to 29.5% from 16.1% in H1 2024.
Interest expense showed the sharpest rise at 43%, followed by personnel costs at 30.8%. Fee and commission expenses rose 27%, other operating costs 24.8%, and loan-impairment charges 16%.
Despite weaker earnings, the board maintained its interim dividend at ₦1.00 per share, unchanged from H1 2024.
GTCO’s performance mirrors a wider trend
GTCO joins Zenith Bank in reporting profit declines. Last week, the country’s second-largest lender posted its first-half-year profit drop in a decade, with after-tax profit down 7.9% to ₦532.2 billion ($372.4 million) in H1 2025.
The two tier-one banks had become the only lenders to hit a trillion naira profit last year since their establishment 34 years ago. Zenith recorded the highest of ₦1.03 trillion ($673.6 million) compared with GTCO’s ₦1.02 trillion ($667.1 million).
GTCO still maintains gross earnings above the ₦1 trillion ($644.4 million) mark, underscoring resilience. Its shares closed at ₦90.0 ($0.006) on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Tuesday, down 3.2 percent on the day but up 57.9 percent year-to-date.
With a market value of ₦3.28 trillion ($2.20 billion), African Exchange data says GTCO remains the sixth most valuable stock on the NGX, accounting for 3.68 percent of the exchange’s total equity market capitalisation.
All figures converted at the official average exchange rate of ₦1,551.9/$1 for H1 2025; H1 2024 rate ₦1,503/$1 and ₦1,488.9/$1 as of September 22, 2025.
