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By Stuart Condie

  SYDNEY--ANZ Group held its final dividend despite a 10% drop in the Australian bank's annual profit driven by impairments, redundancy costs and other one-off expenses. 

  Australia's fourth-largest bank by market capitalization on Monday reported a net profit for the 12 months through September of 5.89 billion Australian dollars, equivalent to US$3.82 billion. 

  Revenue rose 8% to A$22.19 billion but the bottom line was weighed by A$1.11 billion of impairments and other previously declared one-off items. 

  The average analyst forecast had been for a net profit of A$6.18 billion from revenue of A$22.18 billion, according to data compiled by Visible Alpha. 

  Analysts had cautioned ahead of the result that consensus forecasts might not fully reflect the significant items reported by ANZ on Oct. 31. 

  ANZ reported cash profit, which is closely watched by analysts, of A$5.79 billion, down 14% on a year earlier and well short of consensus for A$6.17 billion. Stripping out one-off items, cash profit was flat at A$6.90 billion. 

  Net interest margin--a key measure of lending profitability--fell two basis points to 1.55%, in line with analysts' expectations for a 1.55% margin. 

  ANZ held its dividend at A$0.83. 

  The largest component of the one-off items was a A$585 million pretax charge for 3,500 redundancies announced in September by Chief Executive Nuno Matos, who took charge in May. 

  The cost of trimming about 8% of ANZ's workforce exceeded the bank's initial A$560 million estimate. 

  "We are going to create a very lean and a very agile company. At the same time, we are going to invest for growth that will come later," Matos said. 

  Other one-off expenses included a A$285 million impairment of ANZ's stake in PT Bank Pan Indonesia and A$271 million in penalties and costs related to regulatory issues. 

  Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com 

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  November 09, 2025 16:36 ET (21:36 GMT)
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