ABN Amro's quarterly results lift shares to 5-year high

By Mateusz Rabiega and Jakob Van Calster

(Reuters) -Dutch lender ABN Amro's fourth-quarter profit and net interest income beat expectations on Wednesday, lifting the shares 7% to their highest in 5 years as the bank kept a lid on costs.

ABN Amro, one of three dominant banks in the Netherlands, posted a net profit of 397 million euros ($412 million) for the quarter. While that was 27% below the same period the year before, it was above analysts' average forecast of 389 million euros in a company-compiled consensus.

"Overall a strong set of results (with a somewhat) mixed guidance for 2025, but in consensus it's evening out", said analysts from ING Global Markets Research, while analysts at KBC Securities cited "very strong" NII, and fees income.

At 1016 GMT the stock was up 6.5%, at its highest since November 6, 2019.

The lender said net interest income rose 4% to 6.5 billion euros in 2024, above its target, mainly as a result of improved corporate banking and a short-lived boost in their treasury segment.

"The year saw further growth in our net interest income and fee income. With the Dutch mortgage market rebounding during 2024, we managed to increase our market share for new production (of loans) from 16% to 19%," CEO Robert Swaak said in a statement.

But it said net interest income was expected to dip to between 6.2 billion and 6.4 billion euros in 2025.

The banking sector has benefited from rising interest rates over the last three years. However, the European Central bank is expected to cut interest rates further after it recently lowered the deposit rate to 2.75%.

The bank said costs remained at its yearly target of around 5.3 billion euros, and were expected to remain stable this year.

($1 = 0.9639 euros)

(Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega and Jakob Van Calster in Gdansk; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Kate Mayberry and Elaine Hardcastle)