Danske Bank expects 'soft landing' after second-quarter profit spurt
Q2 net profit rises, beats analyst forecasts
Helped by credit quality, higher net interest income, fees
To pay 56% of H1 net profit in interim dividend
Keeps full-year guidance
Recasts with CEO comment, updates share price
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
COPENHAGEN, July 19 (Reuters) -Denmark's biggest lender Danske Bank DANSKE.CO expects "a soft landing" as a boost from high interest rates fades, it said on Friday, after it posted second-quarter net profit that beat expectations and announced an interim dividend for shareholders.
Danske's shares, which have more than doubled in value over the last two years, traded 8.1% higher at 0921 GMT.
The bank said net profit rose 17% from a year earlier to 5.84 billion Danish crowns ($852.37 million), topping the 5.57 billion expected by analysts in a poll provided by the bank and building on a strong first quarter.
A combination of strong net interest income, higher fees, driven by high customer activity, and strong credit quality led to an increase in net profit, CEO Carsten Egeriis said.
"We are looking into a soft landing and will probably see growth next year of just over 2% here in Denmark," Egeriis said in an interview.
"At the moment, our customers are doing well, they are cushioned and we don't really see any danger signs around credit quality," he said.
While benefiting from higher interest rates, Danske has kept loan losses marginal despite an economic slump.
Egeriis said the start of rate cuts by the European Central Bank was "a positive step that is likely to benefit economic activity" and would limit the impact of lower interest rates on the bank's earnings.
It expects net interest income to peak in the second half of the year.
Swedish banks Handelsbanken SHBa.ST, SEB SEBa.ST and Swedbank SWEDa.ST also reported higher-than-expected net earnings this week.
Danske said it would pay an interim dividend for the first half of the year of 7.5 crowns per share, equivalent to 56% of net profit for the period.
Danske's net fee income jumped 23% to 3.70 billion in the second quarter, above the 3.28 billion expected by analysts. Net interest income rose 7% to 9.15 billion crowns, below the expected 9.23 billion.
The bank kept its full-year guidance unchanged after it said last month that strong credit quality and a net loan impairment reversal in the second quarter had prompted it to raise its net profit forecast for the year to a range of 21 billion to 23 billion crowns from 20-22 billion seen previously.
Egeriis said there was no sign the bank had been affected by a cyber outage that caused widespread disruption on Friday.
($1 = 6.8515 Danish crowns)
Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Rasmussen and Barbara Lewis
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