National Australia Bank – NAB Shares Company Profile

National Australia Bank (NAB) is based in Australia and is a financial services group that provides a range of comprehensive financial and banking services to its main markets of Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. NAB is one of the top 10 Australian companies by market capitalization.

NAB was founded in 1858, first known as the National Bank of Australia, the bank’s early growth came about in Victoria and South Australia, further growth was achieved and maintained via absorption of a number of regional banks. The National Bank of Australia merged with the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney to form what is now known as National Australia Bank (NAB). During the last two decades, NAB acquired numerous offshore banking and financial services businesses, many of which were sold however, after failing to achieve expectations.

The main factor that makes NAB different from its major competitors is its presence in the United Kingdom. This allows for a source diversification of earnings for NAB as well as some alternative growth opportunities. Unfortunately, this also limits NAB’s leverage in the domestic banking market, and also makes NAB’s earnings growth vulnerable to any under performance in the UK banking sector.

NAB is a full-service bank that provides wealth-management products to customers ranging from retail, small and medium business, all the way to large companies and governments. Major competitors are the other major Australian banks: Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Westpac Banking Corporation WBC, the Australia New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), regional banks in certain states, mortgage originators, life insurance companies and other money-management businesses. The size, strength, and strong distribution network of NAB means it is well positioned to effectively compete in domestick markets, however it remains smaller-scale in the U.K.

General Information on NAB:

Company Name: National Australia Bank Limited
Stock Code: NAB
Website: www.nabgroup.com
Market Cap ($M): 59,190
Equiv. Shares (M): 2,118

Market Statistics:

% of Market: 5.0000
% of Sector: 10.7510
Sector: Financials
Industry Group: Banks
Industry: Commercial Banks

Fast facts about the NAB Group (2009)

Employees: 38,953
Customers: 10.93 million
Branches and service centres: 1,808
ATMs: 4654