Increased borrowing demand and the need for more funding for the banking companies of Zimbabwe Financial Holdings saw its balance sheet balloon from $32.9 billion in the first half of last year to $131.6 billion in the first half of this year.
Its advances and other accounts shot up from $7.5 billion to $44.4 billion but the banking group, which at one time almost collapsed because of bad debts, says its lending policies ensured that its performance was not adversely affected by the overall decline in the economy.
The group had to set aside $731.2 million for bad and doubtful debts, up from $39.1 million. Its total revenue increased from $2.3 billion to $7.5 billion with net profit increasing by more than 400 percent from $408.1 million to $1.9 billion.
The bulk of the group’s profit came from the Zimbabwe Banking Corporation which had a net profit of $1.8 billion. Last year, its net profit for the first half was only $399.6 million.
The bank had total income of $6.7 billion compared with $2.2 billion during the same period last year.
Scotfin also did well with net profit at $83.9 million more than double last year’s net profit of $37 million. Its total income had increased from $101.9 million to $382 million.
(22 VIEWS)
