Danske Bank, Denmark's biggest lender, has today announced an extraordinary dividend and set more aggressive financial and cost-saving goals, saying that progress on targets thus far had allowed it to become more ambitious.
That came in tandem with a 1% decline in net profit for the first-quarter to 5.69 billion Danish crowns ($888m), which was in line with expectations.
Danske said it would pay an extra dividend of 6.14 Danish crowns per share and said it plans to pay out between 60% and 70% of its net profit by 2028, up from a previous target of 40%-60%.
Other 2028 goals include lifting return on equity to above 14.5% compared with more than 13% in 2026 and targeting a ratio of spending 43% of income, down from around 45% this year.
Danske said it expects overall income in 2028 of 63 billion crowns, slightly above the 62.5 billion predicted on average by analysts in a poll compiled by the bank.
Net interest income, a metric for measuring banks' income from lending and deposits, rose 3.5% to 9.34 billion crowns, broadly in line with the 9.22 billion forecast by analysts.
The bank maintained its full-year net profit forecast of between 22 billion and 24 billion crowns.
