FirstHoldco Plc delivered a masterclass performance in its first-quarter 2026 financials, recording a 72% year-on-year profit before tax (PBT) growth
Profit before tax (PBT) jumped to ₦321 billion from ₦186.47 billion in the corresponding period of 2025, supported by steady interest-earning capacity and robust fee income generation.
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The first quarter of 2026 marked a definitive pivot for FirstHoldCo Plc, as the parent entity of Nigeria’s oldest commercial bank re-established itself as a financial powerhouse.
Emerging from a period of aggressive balance sheet restructuring characterized by massive legacy debt write-offs in late 2025, the group’s Q1 2026 performance represents a “phoenix-like” Strategic reset.
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Post its 2025 balance-sheet cleanup
FirstHoldco’s Q1 2026 results also established the group as the second-largest Nigerian lender by absolute profit before tax, trailing only Zenith Bank.
In Q1, 2026, Zenith Bank reported PBT of ₦360.91 billion, FirstHoldCo ₦321 billion, GTCO ₦302.89 billion, Access Holdings ₦272.2 billion and UBA ₦160.65 billion.
This renaissance is not merely a product of the high-interest-rate environment currently prevailing in Nigeria, where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has maintained its hawkish stance with a 26.5% Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to anchor inflation.
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Rather, it is the result of a deliberate “kitchen-sinking” of bad assets in the 2025 financial year, which saw the group take a historic ₦830 billion impairment charge to resolve historical asset quality concerns once and for all.
This strategic “cleansing” has liberated the balance sheet to capture the full upside of the current lending cycle, allowing FirstHoldCo to lead the market in the most critical measures of shareholder value creation.
The Profitability Outperformer: Return on Equity Leadership
FirstHoldCo’s standout metric for the first quarter of 2026 is its Return on Equity (ROE). This parameter serves as the ultimate barometer for management’s ability to generate earnings from the capital entrusted to them by shareholders.
For Q1 2026, FirstHoldCo delivered a post-tax ROE of 31.6%, effectively eclipsing the entire FUGAZ group. This represents a staggering turnaround from the 4.6% recorded in December 2025, which was heavily weighed down by the balance sheet reset.
The leadership in ROE is particularly noteworthy given the simultaneous recapitalization efforts across the industry, which naturally exerts downward pressure on ROE and indicates that FirstHoldCo’s earnings power is scaling faster than its capital dilution.
The Revenue Engine: Optimized Asset Mix
FirstHoldCo’s outperformance is structurally rooted in its superior asset yield, particularly within its loan book. Unlike some peers who have historically relied on the “carry trade” of government securities, FirstHoldCo has aggressively pivoted toward private sector credit. In Q1 2026, the group generated ₦466 billion in interest income from loans and advances to customers, representing a 28% increase from the prior year.
This growth in customer loan income is significantly higher than that of its closest rivals. FirstHoldCo is finding higher-quality lending opportunities in a tight liquidity environment.
Operational Resilience
FirstHoldCo’s Cost-to-Income Ratio (CIR) improved remarkably from 53.8% in late 2025 to 45.2% in Q1 2026. While it still trails GTCO (the industry efficiency benchmark at 30.9%) and Zenith (43.5%), it has significantly outperformed Access Corp (55.8%) and UBA (61.2%).
The improvement in FirstHoldCo’s ratio is even more impressive when considering that its total operating expenses rose 21% year-on-year to ₦298 billion. The key to this outperformance is “positive operating leverage”—the group’s net earnings grew by 41%, effectively “outrunning” its expense growth.
Recovery and Credit Quality
The most profound turnaround in FirstHoldCo’s financial profile is found in its “Other Non-Interest Income,” specifically the “Recoveries” line item. In Q1 2025, the group reported a modest ₦1 billion in loan recoveries; by Q1 2026, this figure surged by 1570% to ₦19 billion.
This outperformance in debt recovery is a direct consequence of the 2025 balance sheet reset. Having aggressively written off legacy non-performing loans (NPLs), the bank’s specialized recovery units are now clawing back value from these assets, which flows directly to the bottom line as non-interest income.
FirstHoldCo’s balance sheet reflects a bank that is both liquid and well-positioned for the “normalization” phase of the economy. Total assets stood at ₦26.8 trillion in March 2026, a slight 2% decline from December 2025, primarily due to the strategic balance sheet management .
By taking the painful but necessary steps to reset its balance sheet in 2025, FirstHoldCo Plc has entered 2026 as a leaner, more profitable, and more efficient competitor.
Its leadership in ROE and PBT growth is not an accident of the market but a direct result of management’s focus on high-yield customer lending and aggressive asset recovery, making it the industry’s most efficient engine for creating shareholder value.
As the benefits of the group recapitalization takes hold and the market digests its Q1 results, the current valuation gap between FirstHoldCo and other tier-one rivals like Zenith and GTCO is expected to narrow.
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