ANZ half-year profit jumps 36%
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) delivered a 36% rise in half-year statutory profit to $1.93 billion, reflecting lower bad debt provisions and a stronger economy. The company said underlying profit was driven by an 8% growth in profit before provisions excluding Global Markets and a 32% reduction in the credit impairment charge.
ANZ said underlying profit of $2.3 billion was up 20% on the prior corresponding period, while revenue rose 10% to $7.22 billion.
Earnings per share was up 19% to 75.4c versus the pcp on a fully diluted basis.
The company said the interim dividend of 52c per share fully franked is 6c per share or 13% higher than pcp.
CEO, Mike Smith, noted the strong performance in New Zealand due to an improving economy.
The New Zealand region profit of NZ$372 million was a NZ$238 million increase on the prior half with a 45% reduction in the provision charge.
Meanwhile, the company said Asia Pacific recorded double digit profit growth.
“The backdrop to our improving business performance is a considerably better outlook for provisions which reflects the strength of the economic recovery particularly in Australia and Asia,” Mr Smith said.
"With the multi-speed economic recovery that’s now occurring around the world, our super regional strategy positions us perfectly to take advantage of the growth story in Asia and the flow on it has to the Australian and to the New Zealand economies.”
However, Mr Smith acknowledged recovery from events of the magnitude of the global financial crisis and the economic downturn in the US and Europe would not happen smoothly.
“Clearly with the magnitude of issues in the US and Europe, we are going to see lower economic growth around the world compared to the decade prior to the financial crisis,” he said.
“In Australia, growth is now expected to be over 3% in 2010 while in New Zealand we expect growth of almost 2% after the economy contracted in 2009. Asia will remain the world’s best performing region with annual economic growth of almost 8% (excluding Japan) which highlights the significance of our super regional strategy.”
At the close of trade yesterday, ANZ shares were trading at $24.85.
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