Solid Westpac result but wealth 'soft'
Westpac Group has turned in a solid full-year result with net profit up six per cent to $8,012 million, but with its wealth business having experienced market headwinds.
The result, released to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today, saw the directors announce a final fully franked dividend of 94 cents per share.
Commenting on the result, Westpac chief executive, Brian Hartzer said that the key drivers had been the bank's retail and business banking divisions, and that while all divisions had continued to grow their businesses, "market headwinds contributed to a softer performance in our wealth and institutional businesses".
Indeed, the bank's results showed that BT Financial Group's cash earnings had been relatively static between the 2014 and 2015 financial years.
Explaining the situation, the results documentation said that the result had been impacted by the partial sale of BT Investment Management (BTIM), lower performance fees and higher insurance claims.
Drilling down on the divisional results, Westpac's statement to the ASX said that wealth management and insurance income decreased $32 million (one per cent).
The results report noted that funds under management and funds under advice had decreased due to lower BTIM income associated with the partial sale and move to equity accounting but that, excluding this impact, funds under management had increased 6 per cent from positive net flows.
It said funds under advice revenue was flat, with average FUA balance increases of 6 per cent, offset by margin compression in the Corporate Super and Wrap platform.
BT Financial Group chief executive, Brad Cooper said that while the group's result was considered flat, once one-off items were stripped out, full-year cash earnings were up six per cent.
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