Bank of Queensland Cuts Dividend By 25 Percent

Post by NeilMc on April 9, 2009 · Under Australian Economy, Company News, Equities, banking, investments · Comment

Regional Australian lender, Bank of Queensland (BoQ) has announced that it intends to cut its first half dividend. The decision was made after net profit tanked 25 per cent to $46.3 million from $61.7 million a year earlier.

BoQ reduced its interim dividend to 26c a share from 35c a year earlier, a cut of 25.7 per cent.

Costs related to debt which has been impaired or bad and doubtful debt stood at $27.6 million for the six months ending February up from $18.4 million a year earlier, representing an increase of 50 per cent.

BoQ’s net interest margin fell from 1.67 per cent for the six months ending August 31st to 1.52 per cent.

The news was not all entirely bad, BoQ said its closely followed normalised cash earnings for the last six month period actually rose year on year and stood at $84.2 million which was in line with market expectations and guidance it have given.

The group said in late February that it expected normalised cash profit – a smoothed measure that strips out volatile items – to rise at least 25 per cent on year, underpinned by a tight focus on costs, strong asset quality and targeted growth.

Australian Banking Deals Compared