ANZ result boosted by ING acquisition

The ANZ Banking Group has recorded a strong lift in half-year profit on the back of solid performances from its Australian divisions and the strength of the recovery within its Asia regional investments.

Where wealth management is concerned, the banking group demonstrated the benefits of its acquisition of 100 per cent of ING Australia.

The company announced to the Australian Securities Exchange today that net profit attributable to shareholders had risen by 36 per cent for the half-year to the end of March to $1,925 million, with underlying profit for the period up 23 per cent to $2.3 billion.

However, the results also revealed that total provision coverage remained high at 2.1 per cent of credit risk weighted assets.

ANZ chief executive Mike Smith said profit for the Australian region had grown by 15 per cent on a half-on-half comparative basis with positive contributions from institutional, commercial and wealth, while the retail business had been flat.

He said the wealth result had been up strongly against a weak second half of 2009, largely as a result of the improvement in equity markets and the contribution made by the ING Australia business, which became 100 per cent ANZ owned from December.

Smith said the acquisition of the Landmark financial services business from the Australian Wheat Board in December had brought in around $300 million in deposits and a loan book of around $2.4 billion, taking the ANZ Regional Commercial business into the number two market share position.

Commenting on the result, Smith said what was encouraging was that the organisation was beginning to see the benefits of difficult decisions taken over the last two and a half years.