Ireland's property finance lender Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Plc. posted a 36 per cent rise in its pre-tax profits at 685.2 million euros for the year ended September, helped by a strong growth in its business-lending.
Analysts had forecast its profits to be in the range of 659-672 million euros.
The bank, the country's third largest in terms of market capitalisation, reported a 28 per cent hike in earnings per share at 73.21 cents and a record lending work in progress -- of 6 billion euros -- at year-end.
Anglo Irish Bank advances property-secured loans to businesses in Ireland and the U.K. It said its lending has gone up 40 per cent on the year at 34.4 billion euros, bulk of it in Ireland -- 19.4 billion euros. Lending in the U.K. grew to 12.5 billion euros.
The bank's chief executive David Drumm said in a statement that the bank's lending work in progress, a key measure of the its future prospects, is at record levels and the outlook for core economies remains positive.
The bank has announced a final dividend of 9.03 cents per share, giving a total payout of 13.54 cents for the year.
The bank's shares gained 2.6 per cent at 11.26 euros, giving it a market cap of 7.5 billion euros. The stock had gone up eightfold in the past five years.
Posted
on : Thu, 24 Nov 2005 01:35 GMT | Banking News
By : Mark Richardson
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