LONDON - The Standard Chartered bank has reported on Monday that it has managed to increase its first-half profits by 20 percent. The bank, which mainly does its business in Asia also announced that its outlook for the rest of the year was very positive, a statement which sent its shares surging by 6 percent.
Standard Chartered's pre-tax profits stood at $1.3 billion as compared to the $1.1 billion registered at the same time last year. These remarkable results were helped in no small measure by the Korea First Bank, South Korea's seventh-largest bank, which was taken over by Standard Chartered earlier this year for $3.3 billion. Elated at the first-half results, Standard Chartered chief executive Mervyn Davies said, "Standard is firing on all cylinders. I think both businesses (consumer and wholesale banking) have good income momentum and we expect them to deliver continued income growth."
He added that the bank was on the look out to buy a stake in a Chinese bank even though Standard already has a 19.99 percent stake in China's Bohai Bank. "If another KFB-type transaction comes along, then great. Unfortunately, they're few and far between," he concluded.
Standard Chairman Bryan Sanderson said that the overall outlook for the rest of the year was strong especially in Asia and the Middle East, "While global rates of growth look set to slow during the second half of 2005, growth rates in our markets are forecast to remain above those of OECD countries," he said.
Standard Chartered's bad-debt charges however, increased by 40 percent to $194 million, while net revenues including those of the KFB rose by 19 percent to $3.24 billion.
Posted
on : Mon, 08 Aug 2005 18:45 GMT | Banking News
By : Mike Lawson
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