Nigerian firm Diamond Bank's year profit up 122 pct

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's Diamond Bank DIAM.LG saw its year profit after tax soar 122 percent as banks benefit from strong economic growth in the world's eighth largest oil exporter.

Earnings rose to 12.8 billion naira ($108.6 million) in the year to April 30, the bank said on Tuesday.

Diamond said the robust result showed that the bank had made significant progress in the implementation of its growth strategy following Nigeria's consolidation of its banking industry.

Its gross earnings climbed 56 percent to 60.4 billion naira, its deposit base grew 93 percent to 419.7 billion and its balance sheet size expanded to 840.3 billion naira, indicating a growth of 87 percent.

A banking industy reform in 2005 cut the number of banks in Africa's top oil producer from 89 mainly fragile institutions to 24 stronger groups, who are scrambling to expand their branch networks and increase lending to corporate and retail clients.

Diamond's chief executive, Emeka Onwuka, attributed the bank's strong performance to a commitment to running a responsive and responsible business.

"Leveraging on these principles and our focused development of our delivery infrastructure, systems and technology, we have gained momentum and scale in all our markets," Onwuka said in a statement.

The bank said it would pay a dividend of 0.56 naira per share and a bonus issue of one share for every 10 already held by shareholders on the books before a yet-to-be-announced date.

Diamond Bank earlier this year concluded an offering of $500 million Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) and listed on the Professional Securities Market of the London Stock Exchange.

Fitch Ratingslast October downgraded Diamond Bank's national long-term rating to 'A-' (nga) from 'A' (nga) and short-term rating to F2 (nga) from F1 (nga).

Diamond, which has a branch in Benin, plans to expand its to other other French-speaking West African countries like Togo, Senegal and Ivory Coast before year-end.

Despite the strong annual performance, the bank's share price fell the maximum 5 percent allowed by the Nigerian Stock Exchange to close at 14.25 naira at the close of trading on Tuesday.

Following is a table of the results:

(in billions of naira)

2008 2007

Gross earnings 60.4 39.9

Profit after tax 12.8 5.8

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(Editing by Randy Fabi and Greg Mahlich)