LONDON (Reuters) – British bank NatWest confirmed Paul Thwaite as its permanent chief executive on Friday and reported better than expected profit for 2023, as it gears up for a crunch sale of state-owned stock in the company to the public after a scandal-hit year.
The taxpayer-backed lender reported pre-tax profit of 6.2 billion pounds ($7.81 billion) for the 12-month period, up on 5.1 billion pounds the prior year and ahead of a 5.95 billion pounds average of analyst forecasts compiled by the bank.
NatWest also announced a final dividend of 11.5 pence per share and a share buyback of 300 million pounds.
Thwaite becomes CEO on a permanent basis with immediate effect, the bank said, after taking on the role on an interim basis last July following the abrupt departure of his predecessor Alison Rose.
($1 = 0.7940 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers, Editing by Lawrence White)
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