Access Holdings Plc (ACCESSCORP) financials

For a bank, interest income is the main source of revenue. It comes from loans to customers and from investments such as treasury bills and government bonds. When interest rates rise, banks with lots of loans and bonds usually earn more.

Some banks print interest income in two lines (for example, interest calculated with the effective interest method plus other interest income). Add them together for the total. Non-interest (Islamic) banks such as Jaiz Bank earn income from financing contracts instead of interest.

Example. Zenith Bank earned ₦3.67 trillion of interest income in 2025, up from ₦2.72 trillion in 2024.

For a bank, interest expense is mostly the interest it pays depositors for keeping money with it, plus interest on its own borrowings. For other companies it is the cost of their loans and bonds, often shown as finance costs.

A company with heavy debt can see much of its operating profit eaten up by interest, especially when rates are high. Watch whether interest costs are rising faster than the profit they are paid from.

Example. A manufacturer has ₦50bn of loans at 25% a year. Its interest expense is about ₦12.5bn a year, which comes out of operating profit.

Net interest income is the difference between what a bank earns on loans and investments and what it pays on deposits and borrowings. It is the heart of banking: borrow cheaply from depositors, lend or invest at a higher rate.

Banks with lots of cheap current and savings account deposits tend to have strong net interest income. On top of this, banks earn fees and commissions and trading income, which make up the rest of their revenue.

Example. Zenith Bank's 2025 interest income was ₦3.67tn and its interest expense ₦1.03tn, giving net interest income of ₦2.64tn.

Profit before tax (PBT) is operating profit, plus investment and other income, minus interest and other finance costs. It is the profit the tax authority works from.

PBT is useful for comparing companies whose tax charges differ, for example because one has tax credits or pays a special levy. Headlines about Nigerian bank results often quote PBT, so check whether a figure is before or after tax before comparing.

Example. Operating profit is ₦25bn, finance costs ₦5bn and investment income ₦2bn. Profit before tax is ₦25bn − ₦5bn + ₦2bn = ₦22bn.

Companies in Nigeria pay company income tax on their profits, plus other levies such as the education tax. A loss-making company may still pay minimum tax, and banks paid a windfall tax on foreign exchange gains in 2024 and 2025.

The tax line includes current tax (payable now) and deferred tax (timing differences between accounting and tax rules), so it can be a credit in some years. Divide tax by profit before tax to get the effective tax rate.

Example. Profit before tax is ₦22bn and income tax is (₦6.6bn). The effective tax rate is 30% and profit after tax is ₦15.4bn.

Profit after tax (PAT), or net profit, is the final profit for the period. It is the pool from which dividends can be paid and the rest kept in the business to fund growth.

A single good year can include one-off items, like a gain from selling a building or a large currency gain, so look at the trend over several years and at what drove the result. Losses are shown in brackets.

Example. A company with revenue of ₦100bn and profit after tax of ₦10bn kept ₦10 of every ₦100 of sales, a 10% net profit margin.

When a listed company owns, say, 80% of a subsidiary, its group accounts include all of that subsidiary's profit. The other 20% belongs to the subsidiary's other shareholders, called non-controlling interests (or minority interests).

Profit attributable to owners of the parent is what is left for you as a shareholder of the listed company. Earnings per share is worked out from this figure, not from total profit after tax.

Example. Group profit after tax is ₦50bn, of which ₦5bn belongs to minority shareholders of subsidiaries. Profit for the listed company's shareholders is ₦45bn.

EPS is how much profit the company made for each share that exists. It's the foundation of the P/E ratio and a quick way to see if a business is actually making money for its owners.

Rising EPS over time is a healthy sign; falling EPS can signal trouble.

Example. A company that earns ₦10 billion profit with 5 billion shares has an EPS of ₦2 per share.

Total assets adds up every resource on the balance sheet. Non-current assets are held for more than a year (factories, land, long-term investments). Current assets turn into cash within a year (cash, stock, money owed by customers).

For banks, total assets is a measure of size, and most of it is loans and investments funded by depositors' money. On its own a big asset base does not mean a company is valuable; what matters is how much profit it earns on those assets and how much of them is funded by debt.

Example. Zenith Bank's total assets were ₦31.5 trillion at the end of 2025, mostly loans, bonds and cash, funded largely by ₦26.5 trillion of liabilities.

Cash and cash equivalents is the money a company can use right away: bank balances and deposits or bills that mature within about three months. Banks show cash and balances with the Central Bank of Nigeria, which includes the reserves the CBN requires them to keep.

A healthy cash balance helps a company pay its bills, survive a bad year and take opportunities. Too much idle cash for too long can mean the company has nowhere productive to invest.

Example. A company with ₦20bn of cash and ₦15bn of bills due in the next few months can pay them without borrowing.

Loans and advances to customers is usually a bank's biggest earning asset. The figure is shown net of an impairment allowance: the bank's estimate of loans that will not be repaid in full.

Fast loan growth can boost interest income, but if the bank lends carelessly, bad loans and impairment charges rise later. Compare loans with customer deposits (the loan to deposit ratio) to see how much of depositors' money is lent out.

Example. A bank has ₦1,000bn of loans and expects ₦40bn of them to go bad. It reports net loans to customers of ₦960bn.

Liabilities are obligations the company must settle in the future. Current liabilities are due within a year (suppliers, short-term loans, tax). Non-current liabilities are due later (long-term loans, bonds, lease obligations, deferred tax).

For a bank, most liabilities are customer deposits, which is normal. For other companies, compare liabilities with equity and assets: if a company owes more than it owns, equity becomes negative and shareholders' position is weak.

Example. A company owes ₦40bn to lenders, ₦25bn to suppliers and ₦5bn in tax. Its total liabilities are ₦70bn.

When you put money in a bank account, the bank owes you that money, so deposits sit on the liabilities side of its balance sheet. Deposits are a bank's main source of funding for loans and investments.

Current and savings accounts are cheap funding because they pay little or no interest. Fixed deposits cost more. A bank that grows cheap deposits quickly can lend and invest profitably without paying much for its money.

Example. GTCO had ₦12.5 trillion of customer deposits at the end of 2025, up from ₦10.0 trillion a year earlier.

Borrowings include bank loans, overdrafts, commercial paper and bonds. Reports split them into amounts due within a year (current) and later (non-current). Banks may call them other borrowed funds or debt securities issued.

Debt can help a company grow faster, but interest must be paid whether the year is good or bad. Foreign currency loans become more expensive in naira when the naira weakens. Compare borrowings with equity (debt to equity) and interest costs with operating profit.

Example. A company owes ₦30bn on a bank loan and ₦20bn on a bond. Its borrowings are ₦50bn, and at 20% interest that costs about ₦10bn a year.

Equity is what would be left for shareholders if the company sold all its assets at their balance sheet values and paid off every liability. It is made up of the money shareholders put in (share capital and premium), profits kept in the business (retained earnings) and other reserves.

Equity grows when the company makes profits and keeps them, and shrinks with losses and dividends. Negative equity means the company owes more than it owns, a sign of serious financial strain. Price to book compares the share price with equity per share.

Example. A company has ₦500bn of assets and ₦350bn of liabilities, so equity is ₦150bn. With 10 billion shares, that is ₦15 of book value per share.

Operating cash flow starts with profit, adds back non-cash costs like depreciation, then adjusts for changes in working capital: money tied up in stock, owed by customers or owed to suppliers. It also takes off tax actually paid.

Over time, healthy companies turn most of their profit into operating cash. If profit keeps rising while operating cash flow stays weak or negative, the profit may be stuck in receivables or inventory. For banks this figure swings a lot with deposits and loans, so it is less useful.

Example. A company reports ₦10bn profit, adds back ₦3bn of depreciation, but ₦5bn more is now owed by customers. Cash from operations is ₦8bn.

Investing activities cover buying and selling long-term assets: factories, equipment, land, other companies and investment securities. It is usually negative because growing companies spend more than they sell.

A consistently negative figure is normal and can be a good sign if the spending later drives revenue. A large positive figure often means the company sold assets or investments, which can be a one-off source of cash.

Example. A brewer spends ₦25bn on a new bottling line and sells an old warehouse for ₦3bn. Cash from investing is −₦22bn.

Financing activities show how a company funds itself and rewards shareholders. Money coming in: new loans, bonds and share issues (such as rights issues). Money going out: loan repayments, interest (for some companies), share buybacks and dividends.

A company that keeps borrowing to fund operations is a warning sign. A company paying down debt and paying steady dividends from operating cash is usually in good shape.

Example. A company borrows ₦10bn, repays ₦15bn of old loans and pays ₦5bn of dividends. Cash from financing is ₦10bn − ₦15bn − ₦5bn = −₦10bn.

Capital expenditure (capex) is money spent on long-term physical assets: factories, machines, vehicles, telecom towers, oil wells. It appears in the investing section of the cash flow statement.

Some capex just keeps existing assets running (maintenance); some builds new capacity (growth). Heavy industries like cement, telecoms and oil need a lot of it. Cash from operations minus capex is free cash flow, the cash available for dividends and debt repayment.

Example. A telecom company spends ₦500bn on new towers and network equipment in a year. That is its capex.

Dividends paid in the cash flow statement are the dividends that left the company's bank account in the period. Because Nigerian companies usually pay a final dividend a few months after the year end, the cash paid this year often relates to last year's profit.

Compare dividends paid with operating cash flow and free cash flow. A company that pays out more than it generates is funding dividends from cash reserves or borrowing, which cannot last forever.

Example. In June 2026 a company pays its ₦20bn final dividend for 2025. It shows up as dividends paid in the 2026 cash flow statement.

The cash flow statement ends with cash at the start of the period, plus the net change from operating, investing and financing activities, plus any effect of exchange rate changes. The result is cash at the end.

This can differ from the cash line on the balance sheet, because some companies count bank overdrafts against cash in the cash flow statement, and banks may exclude reserves held at the Central Bank.

Example. A company starts the year with ₦12bn, generates a net ₦3bn and gains ₦1bn from a weaker naira on its dollar deposits. It ends with ₦16bn of cash.

ROE is net profit divided by shareholders' equity. It shows how efficiently management turns the money owners have put into the business into profit.

A consistently high ROE is a sign of a strong business, but check that it isn't driven by heavy borrowing, which shrinks equity and flatters the ratio.

Example. A bank earns ₦200bn profit on ₦1,000bn of shareholders' equity. ROE = 200 ÷ 1,000 = 20%. Every ₦100 of owners' money generated ₦20 of profit that year.

Return on assets (ROA) is profit after tax divided by total assets. It shows how much profit the company squeezes out of every ₦100 of assets, whether those assets were funded by debt or by shareholders.

Banks have low ROA (often 1 to 4%) because their assets are mostly loans funded by deposits; it is their high borrowing that turns that into a strong return on equity. For a manufacturer, 5 to 10% is respectable. For part-year results we scale the figure up to a full year.

Example. A bank with ₦10 trillion of assets makes ₦300bn profit a year. Its ROA is 3%.

Debt-to-equity divides total borrowings by shareholders' equity. A higher number means the company relies more on borrowed money.

Debt can boost returns in good times, but interest must be paid in bad times too, and when interest rates are high, heavily indebted companies feel it first. Compare within a sector: banks and utilities naturally carry more.

Example. A company has ₦30bn of loans and ₦60bn of equity. Debt-to-equity = 30 ÷ 60 = 0.5, so it borrows ₦0.50 for every ₦1 owners have in the business.

The loan to deposit ratio (LDR) divides a bank's loans to customers by its customer deposits. A low ratio means the bank keeps most deposits in cash, bills and bonds; a high ratio means it lends more aggressively.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has at times set a minimum LDR to push banks to lend more to the real economy. A very high ratio can strain a bank's ability to repay depositors quickly; a very low one can mean the bank prefers safe government securities to lending.

Example. A bank has ₦4.6 trillion of loans and ₦7.4 trillion of deposits. Its loan to deposit ratio is 62%.