SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's Westpac Banking Corp Ltd. announced a 16.3 percent rise in its annual net profit and said it was confident of delivering strong results in the fiscal year to June 2005 despite strengthening competition.
The group posted a record net profit of 2.539 billion Australian (1.937 billion US) dollars for the year to September 30, 2004, after revenue jumped 15 percent to 18.126 billion dollars.
The result was at the top end of analysts' forecasts of 2.4 to 2.6 billion Australian dollars profit.
Westpac posted a final dividend of 44 cents, fully franked, taking the full year dividend to 86 cents, fully franked per share, which was an increase of 10 percent on the previous corresponding period.
The bank said its cash earnings per share were up 11 percent to 1.39 dollars, while cash earnings rose 13 percent to 2.559 billion dollars.
Chief executive David Morgan said the bank had good momentum, a strong competitive position and was being supported by sound economic fundamentals.
"However, we are seeing intensifying competition from both new entrants and established market participants," he added.
He said the Australian economy was performing well and while the bank's operating environment would be more challenging, it had built momentum.
"Taken as a whole we expect the operating environment to be more challenging, but continue to expect our businesses to perform well in the year ahead given the untapped potential in more of our customer bases and the good momentum we have built up," he said.
"We are confident that we can continue to deliver strong results at the upper end of the sector for our shareholders in 2005."
He said the composition of economic growth was changing from being consumption-led to being driven by net exports and business investment, which he said was a more sustainable basis for growth.
11/07/2004 - 23:03 GMT - AFP