ANZ releases profit result figures by mistake

ANZ was left red-faced after it “inadvertently” released some sensitive financial details of its full-year profit result.

ANZ was left red-faced after it “inadvertently” released some sensitive financial details of its full-year profit result just days out from the scheduled release date.

The figures, which suggest ANZ’s full-year cash earnings are likely to come in at about $7.12 billion when the final numbers are released on Friday, prompted ANZ to place its shares in a trading halt while it let investors ­absorb the numbers.

The bungle mirrors a stumble of Westpac’s more than eight years ago, when the Sydney-based bank accidentally emailed some financial details to some broking analysts several days ahead of its full-year results. This prompted Westpac to bring forward the release of its entire profit briefing.

ANZ ordered a trading halt shortly before 4pm AEDT yesterday. In a later announcement it said it had sought the trading halt due to an “abundance of caution”.

On Friday the bank had posted on its website an Excel template of key financial tables to assist fund managers and analysts prepare for the announcement of its 2014 financial results.

“The template inadvertently contained details ... of unaudited half-on-half percentage movements for cash profit — FX ­adjusted by division and geo­graphy,” ANZ said.

“This detail represents partial analytical data only,” the bank added.

The figures released by ANZ suggest its flagship Australian business continued to drive growth during the second half, with cash earnings up 6 per cent to $1.568bn.

This will take the full-year profit to $3.05bn, up from $2.86bn last year.

After stripping out moves in currency, earnings from New Zealand were down 4 per cent during the half while the key international and institutional banking business that houses the Asian businesses saw earnings fall away 1 per cent to $1.332bn. Wealth management staged a turnaround with second-half earnings up 32 per cent to $226 million

Full-year cash earnings were likely to come in at $7.12bn, up 7.6 per cent from $6.58bn last year, the figures show.

The bank insisted it remained in compliance with its continuous disclosure obligations.

While there is no suggestion that anyone had traded on the back of the information, it is understood ASIC is planning to analyse trading in ANZ shares looking for unusual pattens.

“Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution, ANZ has sought a trading halt,” ANZ said.

ANZ’s 2014 full-year results will be released on Friday, when it is expected to announce cash earnings of about $7bn.

The bank’s shares were up nearly 1 per cent yesterday, or 32c, to $33.34, before the trading halt took effect.

Shares are expected to resume trading this morning.

In Westpac’s case in 2005, it sent a profit template to analysts and fund managers two days before the slated November 3 release of the bank’s full-year profits.

The document allowed some analysts to access numbers relating to the 2005 profit announcement that were meant to be blanked out.