ANZ posts 14% increase in cash profit
ANZ has reaped the benefits of its so-called transformation program reporting a 14 per cent increase in cash profit to $3.32 billion for the half year to 31 March.
The result comes with ANZ’s sale of its wealth management business to IOOF and its insurance business to Zurich still on foot but with the big banking group clearly focused on the long-run benefits.
The company declared an interim dividend of 80 cents per share fully franked.
Announcing the half-year result to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today, ANZ chief executive, Shayne Elliott said the result demonstrated the company’s strategy to build a better balanced, better capitalised and simpler bank was delivering results.
“We have increased the allocation of capital to our higher performing businesses, delivered on our simplification promise by devesting non-core assets, reduced product complexity and continued to reshape our workforce so we can better respond to changing market dynamics.”
On the question of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, Elliott said he believed the process would continue to have an impact on the banking sector.
However, he said ANZ would learn from the inquiry and “continue to take real action to restore trust within the community”.
Dealing with the broader outlook, he said ANZ expected revenue growth for the second half of 2018 to continue to be constrained by intense competition as well as the impact of increased regulation.
“The difficult trading conditions we originally forecast in 2016 are expected to continue for the foreseeable future,” Elliott said. “This reinforces the decision we took to focus our business on areas where we can deliver exceptional customer outcomes, solve real customer needs and generate a decent return for shareholders.”
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