St George reports record profit
St George Bank has posted a record cash profit result ahead of its looming merger with Westpac.
The bank announced today that it had registered a 13.9 per cent increase in cash profit to $1,321 million for the year ended September 30, representing earnings per share growth of 8.3 per cent.
However, the bank’s wealth management division certainly felt the effects of the ongoing market volatility, with managed funds down nearly $9 billion in September 2007 to $49.7 billion this year.
The bank reported to the Australian Securities Exchange that Asgard had maintained its market position of fifth ranking in terms of funds under administration and fourth ranking based on annual net flows.
Commenting on the result, St George chairman John Curtis described it as “a solid result in a very challenging external environment”.
The bank’s chief executive, Paul Fegan, used the result to state that the directors were unanimously recommending the proposed merger with Westpac at the scheme meeting scheduled to be held on November 13.
Looking into the future, Fegan acknowledged that the outlook for the economy remained uncertain as the effects of the global credit crisis continued to spread.
However, he said that St George fully supported the Australian Government’s response to the credit crisis and its fiscal stimulus package, including the bank’s guarantee.
“These measures are extremely helpful but there are still many issues to be resolved and the situation continues to be uncertain,” Fegan said.
“We believe the Government will closely monitor the situation and may need to take further actions.”
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
Recommended for you
In this week’s episode of Relative Return Insider, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver joins the show to discuss Australia’s stagnating productivity ahead of the government’s economic reform roundtable, and how picking all the “low-hanging fruit” for reform in the ’90s helped kick off a surge that has since stalled out.
In this episode of Relative Return Insider, host Keith Ford is joined by Cyber Daily deputy editor David Hollingworth to take you inside the evolving landscape of cyber crime, how even huge companies can be at risk of breaches, and what that means for anyone trying to understand the risks.
The latest episode of Relative Return sees host Laura Dew chat with Richard Ivers and Mike Younger, co-portfolio managers at Prime Value Asset Management, on their newly launched Microcap Fund and opportunities in small and mid-cap shares.
In this week’s episode of Relative Return Insider, hosts Maja Garaca Djurdjevic and Keith Ford dive into the week's top news, from investors remaining blasé about tariff announcements to bitcoin surging and unemployment numbers.
