Hazy shade of Winters

2 August 2017 By Peter Thal Larsen Follow @Peter_TL

Despite benign economies and fewer bad debts, the emerging market lender’s first-half return on equity scraped just over 5 pct. Chief Executive Bill Winters is investing in growth, but higher returns look way off and regulatory clouds stand in the way of an early dividend.

This content is for Subscribers only

To access full Breakingviews.com content you must be a subscriber. Please use the following link to request a trial.

Subjects

Regions

Context News

Standard Chartered said its underlying pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of June rose 93 percent to $1.9 billion as revenues continued to stabilise following two years of restructuring and losses. The underlying number excludes restructuring charges and other one-off items.

The bank reported loan impairments in its core business of $583 million for the first half, down from $1.1 billion in the same period a year ago.

StanChart’s common equity Tier 1 capital ratio rose to 13.8 percent.

However, the bank said it would not resume paying dividends.

StanChart shares were down 4.8 percent at 805 pence by 1100 BST on Aug. 2.

Email a friend

Please complete the form below.

Required fields *