NatWest Backs Guidance After Income, Profit Beat Estimates

By Elena Vardon

NatWest kept its 2024 guidance unchanged as it reported a slightly smaller-than-expected fall in income and profit for its first quarter.

The British lender said Friday that it still expects total income excluding notable items for the year to be in the range of GBP13.0 billion to GBP13.5 billion, which analysts had deemed conservative into the results. Estimates taken from the latest company-compiled consensus have the figure at GBP13.58 billion.

The London-listed bank reported total income of GBP3.475 billion for the three months ended March 31, beating estimates of GBP3.43 billion for the quarter, and down from GBP3.88 billion reported for the same period the year prior.

Net interest income contributed GBP2.65 billion, it said, compared with consensus expectations of GBP2.56 billion. Group net interest margin for the quarter was 2.05%, against the 1.98% forecast, and increased on the fourth quarter.

Pretax profit for the period dropped to GBP1.33 billion from GBP1.82 billion a year prior, but surpassed expectations of a GBP1.26 billion result.

NatWest--which is still 28.90% owned by the U.K. government--said its guidance for its 2024 operating costs to be broadly stable on 2023's now excludes GBP100 million increase in bank levies.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2024 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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