finance in australia
Finance in Australia
Suncorp’s profits plummet in comparison to last year’s profits. Suncorp’s profits for the year came in at $348 million dollars, which fell in line with forecast, but was under last year’s profit of $583 million.
Brisbane-based Suncorp, one of Australia’s largest home and automobile insurers, and the fifth largest bank had a challenging financial year in 2009. It was challenging to the point that Suncorp’s bad debt provisions increased to $710 million from $71 million.
Chris Skilton, the acting chief executive of Suncorp stated that natural hazards coupled with unexpected weather events and the current economic climate has had a negative impact on the company’s results.
Looking forward, Suncorp’s future expectations are for continued volatility; Skilton says that he is approaching the next year very cautiously.
Suncorp will pay 20 cents a share for a final dividend, which brings the total dividend for the year to 40 cents. Suncorp shares were down 5.1 percent to $7.40 a share on Tuesday, August 25 at 11:43 am (AEST).
