'Complex' $6.97b profit expected from ANZ

ANZ leads a trio of major banks set to release annual financial reports over the next two weeks, and is forecast to deliver a $7 billion profit.

ANZ leads a trio of major banks set to report billions of dollars in profits over the next two weeks, but it may take investors some time to pick over the details of the lender's finances.

ANZ's result on Thursday is expected to be more complex than those of rivals National Australia Bank and Westpac because of the divestments it has made since Shayne Elliott became chief executive in January 2016.

ANZ should benefit from repriced home loans in the wake of the prudential regulator's intervention to limit interest-only mortgages, and has been offloading retail and wealth businesses in Asia, and has also sold its old headquarters in central Melbourne.

ANZ has also agreed to the $975 million sale of its superannuation and other businesses - plus a $184 million selldown of its stake in a Filippino credit card joint venture - but those deals fall outside its 2016/17 fiscal year that ended on September 30.

UBS analysts expect a $3.56 billion second-half profit for ANZ, which would lift the lender to a full-year cash profit of $6.97 billion.

That's some way behind rival Commonwealth Bank, which reported a record $9.88 billion annual profit back in August, but it would be an 18 per cent improvement on last year's impairment-heavy result.

It is also more than the $6.64 billion UBS expects from NAB when it reports on Tuesday.

UBS expects Westpac to report an $8.1 billion profit the following week, which would take the big four banks' total full-year profits to about $31.6 billion.

Investors should also find out how much ANZ has agreed to pay to settle allegations from the corporate regulator of inter-bank rate rigging.

ANZ reached the in-principle settlement on Monday and said it would disclose the amount in its full-year results.

CBA, which operates on a different fiscal calendar to its rivals, is set to release a first quarter trading update on November 8.


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Source: AAP



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