Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) has announced its audited financial results for the 2025 financial year, reporting a profit after tax of N865.75 billion. The company also declared a total dividend of N12.76 per share.

The profit before tax for the period ended December 31, 2025, was N1.23 trillion, marking a 2.78% decrease compared to the N1.27 trillion recorded in the previous year. This decline was partly attributed to the absence of N517.5 billion in fair value gains that had boosted the 2024 performance.

Profit after tax saw a 14.94% reduction, falling to N865.75 billion from N1.02 trillion in 2024. Earnings per share also declined by 28%, from N35.44 kobo in 2024 to N25.42 kobo in 2025.

Despite the dip in net profit, GTCO highlighted that its underlying earnings remained strong, driven by growth in core operating income. Interest income increased to N1.6 trillion from N1.3 trillion in the prior year. Loans and advances to customers constituted the largest portion of this interest income, totaling N559.3 billion, followed by investment securities which contributed N489.4 billion at FVOCI and N269.2 billion at amortized cost.

Net interest income rose to N1.26 trillion, up from N1.05 trillion in the previous year, after accounting for an interest expense of N392.5 billion, which was a 38.6% increase. Impairment charges narrowed significantly to N66.4 billion from N136.6 billion, resulting in a net interest income after impairments of N1.19 trillion.

On the non-interest income front, fees and commissions increased by 28.8% year-on-year to N244.3 billion. The group also reported N78.7 billion from holding gains on tradable financial instruments and N139.9 billion in other income, primarily from recoveries and FX revaluation gains.

However, increased operating expenses, including personnel costs of N101 billion, depreciation and amortization of N89.5 billion, and other operating expenses of N284.8 billion, impacted the bottom line.

GTCO's total assets grew to N17.8 trillion, and shareholders' funds stood at N3.4 trillion. The group's capital adequacy ratio remained robust at 43.8 per cent.

Asset quality showed improvement, with IFRS 9 Stage 3 loans declining to 3.4% at the bank level and 5% at the group level. The cost of risk moderated to 2.2% from 4.9% in the previous year.

Net loans increased by 12.4% to N3.13 trillion, while deposits rose by 23.8% to N12.87 trillion.

Group Chief Executive Officer, Segun Agbaje, commented on the results, stating that the 2025 performance underscored the resilience of the group's core earnings and its focus on building sustainable growth. He added that the dividend payout reflects current performance and confidence in the group's long-term earnings potential.