FirstHoldCo Reaps ₦566.54 Billion in Pre-Tax Profit for Nine Months as Q3,. Signalling Recovery

FirstHoldCo Plc has announced a pre-tax profit of ₦566.54 billion for the nine months ended 30 September 2025, marking a recovery in the third quarter that helped to narrow earlier losses despite still trailing last year’s comparable figure.

The nine-month result represents a 7.3 percent decline from the ₦610.86 billion recorded in the same period in 2024, reflecting lingering effects of higher impairment charges and the absence of one-off foreign-exchange gains. The group’s turnaround in Q3 was driven largely by a sharp increase in core interest income, with net interest income (after impairments) rising to about ₦1.21 trillion. That growth cushioned the impact of increased credit costs and a pullback from prior-year FX-related gains. In the first half of the year, FirstHoldCo had posted ₦356.1 billion in pre-tax profit as it absorbed greater impairment charges and adjusted for non-recurring gains. Other revenue streams such as fees and commissions showed modest gains, and there was slight expansion in deposits and lending volumes. Yet operating expenses and credit costs continued to weigh on headline profitability into the third quarter. Market observers say that while the uptick in interest-earning revenue is encouraging, the company’s ability to sustain margin improvements will depend on how impairment levels evolve and how it manages ongoing FX volatility toward year-end. Investors will be watching closely as FirstHoldCo enters the fourth quarter, gauging how effectively it can convert stronger interest-income performance into durable earnings growth while continuing its balance-sheet remediation efforts.