*after significant items
The total dividend for 2003 is 163 cents per share compared with 147 cents last year. The final dividend is 83 cents and will be fully franked.
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| Cash earnings per share (EPS)# |
268.5c |
| Cash EPS growth# |
8.2% |
| Economic Value Added (EVA®) |
$1,668 million |
| Return on equity# |
18.3% |
The 8.2% increase in cash earnings per share reflects, in part, the benefit of our share buy-back activity.
*For further detail about these measures refer to the annual financial report 2003.
#before the after-tax impact of significant items
EVA® is a registered trademark of Stern Stewart & Co. It measures the economic profit earned in excess of the Group's cost of capital.
Share price performance*
*National share price at September 30, 1993, used as a base for the ASX All Ordinaries Index.
Total shareholder return#
#Total shareholder return measures the growth in the value of the investment in shares, assuming reinvestment of dividends. The calculation does not take into account tax on returns or franking credits.
Our winning performance
We have:
- Approximately 7.8 million banking customers and 2.8 million wealth management customers;
- $397 billion in total assets; and
- A market capitalisation of $46.3 billion.
We are:
- The only bank in the Asia Pacific region and one of a small number in the world to hold an AA long-term credit rating*;
- The only Australian financial services company to be ranked amongst the world's 30 most profitable financial services organisations (Fortune magazine, July 2003); and
- The largest Australian financial institution by market capitalisation listed on Australian Securities Exchange Limited.
*Standard & Poor's Corporation and Fitch, Inc. long-term ratings
Achievements
MLC was awarded the 2003 Life Insurance Company of the Year for the second year running. (Personal Investor Awards for Excellence in Financial Services).
BNZ Investment Management Limited (part of Wealth Management New Zealand) was named the 2003 FundSource Fund Manager of the Year for the third year in a row.
Yorkshire Bank was awarded Best Regional Lender by Your Mortgage magazine (United Kingdom) for the fifth year in a row.
 Building trusted relationships
This year the National's share price was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. The index tracks the sustainability performance of global companies.
Supporting the community
In Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland, we now provide more than 96,000 low-fee bank accounts to customers in need and over 39,000 bank accounts to not-for-profit/community groups.
Great place to work
The Group is a major employer with 42,540 full-time equivalent employees, globally. Our workforce consists of 76% full-time employees and our global employee turnover is 9.8% pa*.
We were the joint award winner for outstanding achievement in the 2003 Victorian Excellence and Leadership in Diversity Awards in the category of Employer of People with a Disability.
*year ended July 1, 2003
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