May 1, 2018

ANZ Half Year Results 2018

ANZ today announced a Statutory Profit after tax for the Half Year ended 31 March2018 of $3.32billion up 14% and a Cash Profit1 on a continuing basis of $3.49billionup 4% on the prior comparable period.

ANZ’s Common Equity Tier 1 Capital Ratio was 11.0% up 91 basis points (bps). Return on Equity increased 32bps to 11.9% with Cash Earnings per Share up 4% to 119.4 cents.

The 2018 Half Year result demonstrates continued progress in ANZ’s transformation to build a simpler, better capitalised, better balanced bank.

An Interim Dividend of 80 cents per share will be paid, fully franked, reflecting a payout ratio of 66% of Cash Profit on a continuing basis and is broadly in line with ANZ’s target fully franked full year payout ratio of 60 to 65%.

Group financial information

CEO Commentary

ANZ Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott said: “This result demonstrates our strategy to build a better balanced, better capitalised and simpler bank is delivering results for customers and shareholders despite continued headwinds for the sector.

“We have increased the allocation of capital to our higher performing businesses, delivered on our simplification promise by divesting non-core assets, reduced product complexity and continued to reshape our workforce so we can better respond to changing market dynamics.

“We are now benefiting from a more focused organisation with sector-leading capital and improving returns. While we expect this trend to continue, we have needed to manage additional regulatory costs, softer industry revenue growth and the impact of the bank tax. We must also respond comprehensively to the very real concerns that the Royal Commission identifies.

“Our business efficiency has improved, with expenses reducing in absolute terms for each of the past four halves. This discipline allowed us to increase investment in our digital capability in Australia, which is already delivering results in terms of better customer experience.

“Our retail markets of Australia and New Zealand performed well with solid growth in both lending and deposits, increasing market share in our targeted segments, particularly owner-occupier principal and interest (P&I) home loans.

“Customers also continue to benefit from our focus on building a superior banking experience. We extended our leadership in the mobile payments space with the addition of Fitbit Pay (Australia), Garmin Pay and eftpos on Apple Pay and Android Pay. We also introduced a new mobile banking app that is currently the top rated banking app in the Australian Apple store, with daily registrations the highest on record for ANZ. The launch of our unique voice biometrics capability has contributed to five-fold growth in the value of payments using mobile devices from November 2017 to March 2018.

“A highlight of the half was finalising the sale of our six Asian retail and wealth businesses. This was a significant execution task involving hundreds of ANZ staff transferring around two million customers, 40 branches, 69 systems and 2,700 employees on schedule and under budget. The sale allows us to further strengthen our focus on Institutional, which continues to have a strong regional footprint across 15 markets in Asia and was again named a top four corporate bank in Asia and number one for overall quality3.

“In a fast changing and unpredictable environment, ANZ’s experienced team is committed to building a business that is both nimble and focused on execution. The progress of our multi-year transformation demonstrates we have the right team in place to manage difficult conditions and deliver for our customers and our shareholders.

View PDF for complete 2018 half year results information

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Please find video news grabs of ANZ Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott talking about the bank’s 2018 Half Year Results, the banking Royal Commission and APRA available for download from vimeo:

Overlay footage - https://vimeo.com/267352126

Please email media.relations@anz.com for a copy of any of the photos of Shayne Elliott below.