The National Australia Bank will pay an unchanged final dividend of 99 cents a share after meeting market expectations with a cash profit of $6.642 billion for the year to September 30.
That makes a steady full year payout of $1.98 a share and follows the decision by the ANZ next week to leave its dividends unchanged for the final half and full year.
NAB CEO Andrew Thorburn said in this morning’s earnings release that the bank’s results “represents another year of consistent delivery. Cash earnings and revenue are up, asset quality is a highlight again, and we have further strengthened our balance sheet.
"We have made strong progress over the past three years and now we announce an acceleration of our strategy. This involves an estimated $1.5 billion increase in investment by the end of FY20 to further improve the experience for our customers, reshape our workforce and grow our bank.
"Cost savings of greater than $1 billion are targeted by the end of FY20 as we further simplify our business,” he said. The result was up 2.5% from 2015-16’s $6.483 billion and was struck after a modest 2.7% rise in revenues to just over $18 billion.
Rival Westpac releases its full year results on Monday morning. The Commonwealth Bank has already revealed cash earnings of $9.9 billion.
NAB shares closed at $32.88 on Wednesday. The shares are up just over 7% for the year so far.
