ANZ, Australia’s most Asia-focused lender rose 3.8 percent on news that the banking group released its first half earnings projecting good news for investors with a 5 percent increase on expectations.

Evanson Asset Management’s Hong Kong based Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Charles Leung was bullish on results and was pleased that investors had been rewarded for their persistence during a difficult time for Australia’s banking sector.

“What we see from these results is that cash profits rose to a record A$3.68 billion, beating analyst expectations that averaged out at A$3.65 billion. What is interesting here is that the Westpac Banking Corp released its results reporting lower than expected profits, a trend that has of late been too familiar throughout Australia’s banking sector.”

With a dedicated focus on Asian expansion, the lender has faced a number of obstacles with lending margin pressures and a lower return on equity than typically expected through its domestic markets, however in line with the latest results it is clear that ANZ is improving overseas efficiencies as the group firm its roots deeper into what it sees as an important driver for the future.

“The results were driven by strong lending on the back of high deposit volumes and the continued success of previous restrictions to limit to effect of bad debt through the lending system appears to be working in line with lending policies”, continued Mr. Leung.

However unexpected the latest line of results may have been, the lender continues to face a recurring issue as margin decline is likely to affect momentum at some stage of this bull run. As a result of this, a dividend payout of 86 cents per share was announced compared to analyst predictions of 88 cents per share.

“Although we expected a dividend payout 2 cents per share higher than announced, investors have the option to re-invest their dividend payout for more shares at a discount of 1.5 percent, which in light of development strategy and preparation for reform is a reasonable offer as the equity raised through the program will be more cost effective to performance in the long run”.