NAB lifts profit by 15.9%
National Australia Bank (NAB) has turned in a strong half-year performance, announcing to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today a 15.9 per cent increase in net profit of $2.428 billion.
The company’s cash earnings were up 21.7 per cent to $2.7 billion, which it attributed to market share gains and disciplined margin gains and cost management.
Like all the other major banks, NAB announced a substantial reduction in provisioning for bad and doubtful debts but referenced the impact of recent natural disasters in both Australia and New Zealand.
Looking at its wealth management interests, the NAB announcement said that MLC and NAB Wealth had grown its financial adviser numbers by 241 and had progressed the integration of Aviva.
It said it now had a portfolio of interests in 10 boutique investment management firms through nabInvest.
Drilling down on the performance of MLC and Nab Wealth, the company said cash earnings being interest earnings on shareholders’ retained profits increased by 2.3 per cent to $270 million, with the main contributions being net interest income, investment performance and growth in average in-force premiums.
It said funds under management as at 31 March had increased by 6.8 per cent to $121.9 billion, reflecting improved equity markets – but this had been partly offset by negative discretionary investment flows as investor sentiment remained cautious.
Commenting on the result, NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne (pictured) described the key achievements as being continued progress against strategic priorities and “further consolidation of NAB’s positive differentiation from peers”.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
Recommended for you
In the latest episode of Relative Return Insider, host Maja Garaca Djurdjevic and AMP’s Shane Oliver break down US and Australian rate cuts, soaring gold, and bitcoin’s volatility.
In the latest episode of the Relative Return Insider, host Maja Garaca Djurdjevic and AMP’s chief economist Shane Oliver unpack the surprising twists in the Australian economy, diving into the latest GDP numbers, what’s really driving consumer spending, and what it all means for the Reserve Bank’s next moves.
In this episode of Relative Return, host Laura Dew chats with Roy Keenan, co-head of fixed income at Yarra Capital Management, to discuss the evolving fixed income asset class, his sector preferences, and the RBA’s rate-cutting policy.
In this week’s episode of Relative Return Insider, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver joins the show to dissect the ongoing government economic reform roundtable and reflect on the wish lists of industry stakeholders – and whether there is hope for meaningful reform.
