Westpac’s income for the six months came at $2.175 billion, down slightly by about 1.2% from a year earlier at $2.202 billion.
Revenue climbed nicely though to $8.09 billion versus $5.9 billion a year ago due largely to the acquisition of St. George bank.
But the most alarming thing was the charges in bad debts. Which multiplied by 3.6 times to $1.56 billion from $433 million a year earlier. Mostly weighted towards their business loan segment with a couple of companies in the loans portfolio facing defaults such as ABC learning, Allco and Babcock & Brown International.
“we expect impairment charges to remain at a high level throughout the second half of 2009 and into 2010" Gail Kelly said (CEO).
This comes to show that business conditions are still deteriorating as consumers in the Australian region too continue to deleverage and remain timid about the economic future.
Source: MarketWatch
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