(Bloomberg) -- Sweden’s largest property lender, Svenska Handelsbanken AB, surprised with a dividend that exceeded the highest estimate as fourth-quarter profit topped analyst expectations.

The Stockholm-based lender said its net income of 7.24 billion kronor ($690 million) exceeded the estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg. Net interest income — a measure of profits from loans and deposits — rose 15% in the fourth quarter from a year ago to 12.22 billion kronor, matching the average estimate.

The bank proposed to pay a dividend of 13 kronor per share, more than the 11.34 kronor highest estimate in a survey by Bloomberg. Half of the distribution is an extra payout.

It’s the first earnings report for the new chief executive, Michael Green, who took over the top position at the bank following Carina Akerstrom’s retirement last year. On Tuesday night, he unveiled a sleeker top management to start in April, removing four executives from the team and removing C-suite titles.

Read More: Handelsbanken Slims Down Management as New CEO Revamps Bank

Nordic banks have seen a mixed development in their net interest income from the third quarter to the fourth, pointing to how tailwinds stemming from past interest-rate increases are coming to an end. For Handelsbanken, NII remained flat between the quarters.

Banks in Sweden have experienced increased interest in their large real estate loan books after high leverage and a surge in interest rates brought property companies’ finances under scrutiny. Handelsbanken has the largest loans to the sector, both in relative and absolute terms. 

Net credit losses remained relatively low, at 52 million kronor. Analysts had forecast 301 million kronor. 

Less than a month into Green’s new job, he stumbled into his first communications mishap with the release of a statement that the bank had fired a communications director. It took a full week until the bank backtracked from those claims after she publicly challenged them.

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