(Updates shares in paragraph 3, more details in paragraphs 4 and 5) SYDNEY, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Australia's ANZ Group said it would stop the remaining A$800 million ($520 million) of its share buyback but maintain its dividend as newly appointed CEO Nuno Matos moves to preserve more cash and shifts focus to a bold reset of the bank’s growth strategy. ANZ on Monday also outlined plans for A$800 million of pre-tax cost savings this financial year that would come from previously announced job cuts as well as team restructurings and exiting non-core businesses like online shopping cashback platform Cashrewards. Shares in Australia's fourth-largest bank opened flat and were last trading 0.3% lower after it began a strategy briefing. The S&P/ASX200 was down 0.6% early Monday. Investors had expected the bank would announce plans to cut its dividend or stop the share buyback to help conserve cash. At the briefing, the lender said it would increase its mortgage and business banker numbers by up to 50% in each division as it bids to win back market share it has lost to major rivals. The bank will also reduce reliance on mortgage brokers and aim to write more loans directly to boost its revenue from home lending. ANZ's shares had underperformed its major rivals but have risen nearly 20% since Matos took over on June 1. The bank's year-to-date gains of 24.1% outrank the share price rises of its "Big Four" Australian bank rivals Commonwealth Bank of Australia , National Australia Bank and Westpac. ANZ last month unveiled plans to slash 3,500 jobs at a one-off cost of A$560 million and said it would pay A$240 million in penalties after admitting to systemic failures, including “unconscionable” conduct in a government bond deal. The bank said on Monday it expected its final dividend to be in line with its half-year payout and it would apply a 1.5% discount on its next two dividend reinvestment plans. ANZ unveiled a new A$2 billion share buyback in May 2024 after the bank's first-half cash earnings largely met analyst estimates, but it had only completed about A$1.2 billion of share purchases before cancelling the buyback on Monday. ($1 = 1.5389 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru and Scott Murdoch in Sydney; Editing by Diane Craft and Jamie Freed) (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
