St George posts record breaker

A 27 per cent growth in managed funds to $50 billion has helped St George Bank to a record $1.16 billion net profit for the year ending September — 13 per cent ahead of last year.

The bank also posted an increase of 28.6 per cent to $37.3 billion in Asgard Wealth Solutions’ funds under administration, pushing the group’s share of net market flows to 13 per cent, up from 7.9 per cent in June 2006.

St George’s 2007 result — the seventh year in a row the bank has delivered double digit earnings per share growth — was achieved on a 10.8 per cent growth in revenue.

It is in line with analysts’ expectations of earnings per share growth of 11.8 per cent to 218.9 cents per share, and also at the top end of the bank’s own expectations.

A fully-franked final dividend of 86 cents has been declared — an 11.7 per cent increase on September 2006, making a total payout of 168 cents per share for the year ending September 30.

Chairman John Thame attributed the result to “government superannuation changes, deeper penetration across the wealth customer base, strong investments in underlying infrastructure and highly productive distribution channels”.

The result will be particularly pleasing for Paul Fegan, who headed up the wealth management (and retail) divisions before being appointed as acting chief executive about two months ago in the wake of Gail Kelly’s departure.

Thame is expected to make an announcement on a successor to Kelly before St George’s annual meeting in mid-December.