Investors got NAB about right, selling off the shares
after the group reported its 2005 annual profit today of which the main point
was an unchanged dividend of 83 cents for the second half and $1.66 for the
year.

They
sold the shares to around the $33.18 mark at midday simply because they had been
bid higher in the past week by over-optimistic punters.

Here’s
an early AAP report on the profit.

The way it was reported is very misleading because there are so
many one-off factors contributing to the overall result – the
headline figure of $4.13 billion was boosted by the profit on the sale
of the Irish banks, cut by restricting costs (with another 300 jobs to
go this year at least), and several other factors.

The “cash” earnings of $3.31 billion were down just over four per cent for the year,
but almost 5% higher in the second half.

The
extra jobs to go will take the total losses to around 4,500 while the bank has
admitted to overcharging another 50,000 customers, taking the total to around
190,000.

The
latest overcharging was on fixed interest business loans and will cost NAB at least
$18 million. The previous case which involved 140,000 customers was on debits
tax.

In
addition, the bank had been forced in previous years to pay customers of its old
MLC funds management business around $60 million for incorrect pricing on some
products.

The latest is not a big ouch, but that it continues to happen surely
must be a worry. After all, CEO John Stewart and his management team
had promised a new approach. That they are still finding out problems
from the past means the management team is being deflected from the
future.