National Australia Bank annual profit falls 10 pct

SYDNEY, Oct 30 (Reuters) - National Australia Bank, the country's No. 4 lender by market value, said annual cash profit fell almost 10 percent, its second drop in three years, hit by writedowns for its troubled UK business.

Cash earnings for the year to Sept. 30 were A$5.18 billion ($4.55 billion), down from a restated A$5.75 billion a year earlier. Revenues grew 1.9 percent to A$18.9 billion.

The decline in earnings had been flagged this month with a profit warning.

Since taking the reins on Aug. 1, Chief Executive Andrew Thorburn has offloaded a minority stake in its U.S. unit Great Western Bancorp Inc via an IPO, sold a big chunk of UK non-performing loans and shuffled key management roles.

Thorburn said he saw tough market conditions continuing to put pressure on net interest margins and was focused on improving profits from the NAB Wealth business and exiting the UK operations to improve shareholder returns.

(1 US dollar = 1.1374 Australian dollar) (Reporting by Swati Pandey and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)