[August 03, 2011] Intercontinental Bank Records N3.6 Billion Profit Tweet Aug 03, 2011 (This Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The Intercontinental Bank Group has said it achieved profit before tax of N3.6 billion in its unaudited half year results for the period ended June 31, 2011. The rescued bank, which has signed a business combination agreement with Access Bank Plc, said its profit after tax climbed by 43.5 per cent to N3.3 billion in the period under review, compared with the N2.3 billion recorded in June, 2010. According to a statement from the bank, the Intercontinental Group recorded gross earnings of N40.6 billion, while the bank accounted for N29.93 billion of the total earning for period, the results said. Commenting on the group's performance, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Mahmoud Lai Alabi, revealed that the profit level was driven by adoption of efficient banking operations model, reduction in administrative overheads, among other costs. Alabi emphasised that the bank's recapitalisation plan would be concluded before the September 30 deadline. He revealed that the bank recorded a huge progress in the transaction by signing the Transaction Implementation Agreement (TIA), and optimistic that the various other milestones would be met before the deadline. The bank said it had developed a strategy towards improving the quality of its risk assets and liquidity paid off as the group reduced its non-performing loans significantly. It reiterated: "that the re-engineering efforts of the management team coupled with reinvigorated recapitalisation efforts would definitely bring the much expected fruitful dividend for shareholders and investors at the end of the financial year." The share price of Intercontinental Bank stood at 82 kobo as at Monday, just as total market capitalisation was N15.465 billion. Intercontinental Bank, which was the first rescued bank to reach the advanced stage in its recapitalisation deal, had also notified the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its pre-merger plans. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]