ANZ Bank’s shares will resume trading this morning after the bank owned up to an embarrassing disclosure gaffe yesterday.
In an announcement yesterday afternoon, the country’s third largest bank asked to have trading in its shares halted.
No reason was given, but it quickly became known that the bank had included some information in a template/spreadsheet issued last week for analysts to work from when examining the 2013-14 profit, due for release on Friday morning.
The bank later revealed that it had accidentally disclosed information on the performance of some of its business units in a spreadsheet on its website last week.
ANZ shares rose 1% yesterday in a general advance by all the banks.
ANZ YTD – ANZ halts after results gaffe
In the template for analysts and fund managers, the bank had included the percentage change in cash profit for each division and geographic region, after adjusting for foreign exchange movements.
This showed cash profits had risen by 3% in the latest half across its divisions, after a $3.5 billion performance in the previous March half.
This implies second-half foreign-exchange adjusted profits of $3.61 billion for the bank, and full-year earnings of about $7.11 billion.
The bank said in the second statement the information was “partial analytical data only” and it remained in compliance with its continuous disclosure obligations, but it had taken a highly cautious approach.
“Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution, ANZ has sought a trading halt until the close of trading on the ASX today,” it said.
The figures were unaudited.
It is not the first time a major bank has accidentally released sensitive results data in a template.
Westpac did something similar in 2005, which forced it to reveal its full-year earnings ahead of schedule.
