By Alice Uribe

SYDNEY--National Australia Bank Ltd. reported an 11% rise in interim profit and increased its dividend by almost 22% after experiencing strong growth in lending and deposits.

Australia's second largest lender by market share on Thursday said its net profit rose to 3.55 billion Australian dollars (US$2.57 billion) in the six months through March.

Cash earnings--a measure closely tracked by analysts that strips out non-core items such as revenue hedges and treasury shares--rose by 4.1% to A$3.48 billion. The bank declared an interim dividend of A$0.73 per share, compared with A$0.60 a year earlier.

Consensus forecasts compiled by FactSet projected NAB's first-half profit would be A$3.45 billion, with an interim dividend of A$0.69 per share.

NAB's Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio--a key measure of a bank's ability to withstand financial shocks--was 12.48%. This was 52 basis points lower than Sep. 2021, which the bank said reflected the impact of a now-completed A$2.5 billion on-market share buy-back.

Write to Alice Uribe at alice.uribe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 04, 2022 18:36 ET (22:36 GMT)

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