SYDNEY, Oct 27 (Reuters) - National Australia Bank NAB.AX (NAB) posted a 4 percent annual cash profit and maintained its final dividend after streamlining its portfolio by selling assets in the United Kingdom and United States.
NAB reported a cash profit of A$6.48 billion ($4.95 billion)for the year ended Sept. 30, up from A$6.22 billion a year earlier, restated to reflect the sale of 80 percent of its life insurance business. The cash profit figure excludes one-offs and non-cash accounting items.
The result was above an average estimate of 3 percent growth in cash profit from 15 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The final dividend of A$0.99 was steady. Analysts had forecast it would fall by 4 percent to A$0.95.
NAB is Australia's fourth-largest bank by market value and the first of three of the "Big Four" banks that will report full-year results over the next two weeks. ($1 = 1.3079 Australian dollars)