NatWest Group PLC on Friday announced a £500 million buyback scheme, as its interim profit surged.
NatWest has had a difficult week, so news of higher profits should please shareholders.
On Tuesday evening, Alison Rose resigned as chief executive officer after admitting to being the source of an inaccurate news story about the finances of pro-Brexit politician Nigel Farage.
In 2019, Rose became NatWest’s CEO. She was the first woman to take the job at one of their four UK banks back in 2019, and leaving means that the handful of women leaders with the FTSE 100 firms has gotten even smaller.
For now, NatWest said that Paul Thwaite will take over as CEO, for an initial period of 12 months.
In July 2022, Thwaite was appointed as CEO of NatWest’s Commercial & Institutional ring-fence bank, after leading the company’s commercial banking division as CEO since November 2019.
The board said in a statement that a further process to appoint a permanent successor will take place ‘in due course’.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times on Friday reported that Chair Howard Davies said he intends ‘to continue leading the bank’.
NatWest chose to mostly avoid the topic in its interim results on Friday.
It reported total income of £7.73 billion in the six months ended June 30, up 24% from £6.22 billion a year earlier.
Operating pretax profit rose to £3.59 billion, up 37% from £2.62 billion.
At June 30, the bank’s common equity tier ratio stood at 13.5%, compared to at 14.4% at March 31 and 14.2% at December 31.
NatWest announced that it will be paying an interim dividend of 5.5 pence per share, up from 3.5p a year earlier. It also plans to begin an on-market buyback programme of up to £500 million in the second half of 2023.
Looking ahead, NatWest left its outlook for the year unchanged, saying it expects net interest margin to be less that 3.2%. In line with where it is currently.
Chief Financial Officer Katie Murray said: ‘NatWest Group’s strong performance for the first half of the year is underpinned by our robust balance sheet, with a high-quality deposit base, high levels of liquidity and a well-diversified loan book. As a result, we are able to continue lending to our customers and delivering sustainable returns and distributions to our shareholders, even in the current uncertain economic environment.’
NatWest shares were up 0.1% to 240.21 pence each in London on Friday morning.
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