By Kosaku Narioka
Standard Chartered posted a better-than-expected quarterly net profit and raised its annual operating income guidance, promising more shareholder returns.
Net profit was $931 million for the three months ended September, the London-based bank said Wednesday, exceeding the $857.5 million estimated in a poll of analysts by Visible Alpha.
The result compared with a net loss of $35 million a year earlier, when it was hit by an impairment charge of nearly $700 million related to its investment in China Bohai Bank.
Standard Chartered, which generates much of its profit in Asia, said underlying profit before tax rose 37% to $1.81 billion.
The bank upgraded its income guidance for 2024 following the third-quarter results. It now projects operating income growth of up to 10% in constant-currency terms, excluding certain one-off items, compared with its previous view of above 7% growth.
StanChart also said it plans to return at least $8 billion to shareholders over 2024 to 2026, up from at least $5 billion it guided previously. Its $1.5 billion repurchase program announced in July is under way.
Group Chief Executive Bill Winters said the bank is doubling investment in its fast-growing wealth-management business and focusing on developing the pipeline of future affluent, international-banking clients. The bank is also taking actions to focus on larger global clients in its corporate and investment-banking business, he said.
"These actions will further simplify our business and help us to generate higher quality growth," he said.
Third-quarter pretax profit from its corporate and investment-banking business rose 3.7% to $1.33 billion, while that from wealth and retail banking climbed 7.5% to $701 million.
Net interest income--the difference between interest earned on loans and that paid on deposits-- dropped 23% to $1.48 billion. Non-net interest income, which includes net fees and commission and net trading gains, rose 33% to $3.47 billion.
The lender's Hong-Kong listed shares were recently 3.2% higher after the third-quarter results.
The stock has risen nearly 40% this year, extending its gradual ascent from the low marked in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year, StanChart revamped its group management team as part of efforts to simplify its organizational structure. It recently started offering digital-asset-custody service in the United Arab Emirates.
Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 30, 2024 03:09 ET (07:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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