By Elena Vardon
NatWest Group on Friday posted better-than-expected pretax profit for the second quarter of 2023 and trimmed its net interest margin guidance for 2023, though it backed its other targets.
The U.K. bank now expects its banking net interest margin for the year to be less than 3.20%, from around 3.20% previously, with the margin currently seen at around 3.15%.
The lender posted an operating pretax profit of 1.77 billion pounds ($2.27 billion) for the three months ended June 30 compared with GBP1.40 billion for the second quarter of 2022, against the GBP1.49 billion expected in a company-compiled consensus.
NatWest–which the U.K. government has a 38.69% stake in–said total income rose to GBP3.85 billion from GBP3.21 billion, beating the GBP3.71 billion forecast by analysts. Net interest income was GBP2.82 billion, below consensus of GBP2.90 billion. Its net interest margin was 3.13% for the second quarter, below the expected 3.22%, it said.
The board declared an interim dividend of 5.5 pence a share, missing views of a 5.7 pence payout.
The bank launched a GBP500 million on-market share buyback program for the second half, ahead of expectations of a GBP251 million program.
Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com
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