The group’s statutory net profit after tax of $5.45 billion was up $1.4 billion on the September 2012 full year.
NAB’s cash earnings for the current year were $5.94 billion, up $503 million or 9.3 per cent on the previous year due to higher earnings across all of the banking divisions.
The group’s banking arms in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the United States all increased their contributions to NAB’s profit.
But the troubled UK commercial real estate (CRE) book continued to perform poorly, reporting a first half cash earnings loss of ￡149 million and a second half loss of ￡90 million.
Bad and doubtful debts for UK CRE decreased from ￡185 million in the first half to ￡119 million in the second half, reflecting the continued run-off of the portfolio and the improving property market.
The transferred CRE portfolio contracted from ￡5.6 billion in October 2012 to ￡4 billion gross in September 2013.
NAB Wealth also performed relatively poorly compared to the banking divisions, with cash earnings decreasing by five per cent on the September 2012 full year to $493 million.
The wealth result was caused by the poor claims experience of the insurance business, according to NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne.
“Results for NAB Wealth were mixed, with insurance industry conditions still challenging, while funds management benefited from more favourable equity markets and positive net flows,” he said.
