Standard Chartered stated on Tuesday that full-year pretax profit surged 16 percent on strong performances from its global banking and wealth businesses, while the outcomes were marginally low as the analysts’ estimates.
The emerging markets-oriented lender declared a $1.5 billion share buyback, which it claimed would begin shortly, and also reported that its full-year dividend had risen 65 percent from the previous year.
Chief Executive Bill Winters said in a statement, “We are seeing robust growth in our larger markets, and structural shifts in global trade and investment play to our distinctive strengths serving our clients’ cross-border and affluent banking needs.”
StanChart, the bank that generates the majority of its profits in Asia and Africa, has posted pretax profit during the full year of $6.96 billion, falling short of the average of 16 analyst estimates of $7.2 billion as selected by the bank.
The latest case of succession plans in the bank spotlight is the sudden exit of the previous Chief Financial Officer, Diego De Giorgi, who left to join asset manager Apollo Global Management after less than three years in the role.
Investors and analysts considered him to be the top internal candidate to replace Winters, who has served the position for a decade period and is the longest serving CEO of a major British lender.
De Giorgi’s departure eliminates one of the significant architects of the lender’s “Fit for Growth” cost-cutting initiative, which is due for a critical review in May.
StanChart has said it would invest $1.5 billion over five years in wealth and digital platforms, client centres, people, and brand and marketing, to accelerate income growth and returns.
Both StanChart and HSBC are trying to grow their fee-based income streams, such as wealth management, to compensate for declining interest income as central bank rate cuts worldwide eat into the margins lenders make.
StanChart is also retreating from areas where it lacks scale, particularly in retail banking, in many markets where regulatory costs and competition from local players have made it harder for global banks.
