SBS home loans, redeemable share dividends, jump as profits fall

The Invercargil-based bank is also touting providing 1,449 first-home buyers with home loans, up from 850 the previous year, and a 12% jump in home lending overall, at a time when bank mortgages rose about 3.5%, as highlights of its latest year.

SBS reported a net profit of $38.2 million for the year ended March 31, down from $44.9 million the previous year.

A large part of the decline reflected dividends – effectively fixed-interest payments – jumping to $98.3 million from $37.4 million the previous year.

The redeemable shareholders are effectively SBS’s owners and the value of them jumped nearly 23% to almost $4.1 billion over the year.