CBA upbeat despite 20.8% profit decline
The Commonwealth Bank has reported a 20.8% decline in net profit after tax for the half-year to 31 December in circumstances where it acknowledged that the sale of its wealth businesses proved to be an issue.
The half-year result, released to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today, revealed a net profit after tax of $4,877 million with the bank claiming the 20.8% decline was “mainly due to lower gains realised in the period on the sale of businesses”.
It said cash net profit after tax from continuing operations was $3,886 million which was down 10.8% with operating expenses up 2.3% to $5,556 million.
The company declared an interim dividend of $1.50 per share fully franked.
Commenting on the result, Commonwealth Bank chief executive, Matt Comyn was upbeat suggesting that the bank was uniquely placed to respond to the rapidly changing operating context.
The bank’s history in wealth management continued to drag on the balance sheet with the company pointing to remediation cost provisions of $241 million, including $118 million of additional provisions for “historical Aligned Advice remediation issues”.
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