UpdateStandard Chartered pre-tax profit falls 30 per cent, hit by ‘perfect storm’
Pre-tax profit plunges 30 per cent as bank suffers from taxes, impairments, towering capital requirements and squeezed margins
Taxes, impairments, towering capital requirements, squeezed margins - those and more were part of Standard Chartered's picture of the "perfect storm" last year that drove down pre-tax profit at the British-based, Asian-focused bank by 30 per cent to US$4.24 billion.
The result missed analysts' estimates by a lengthy stride.
Former JP Morgan boss Bill Winters, who will replace chief executive Peter Sands in June, will oversee an aggressive slashing of businesses and headcount over the next three years in a drive to save the bank US$1.8 billion.
A consensus of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a significant but far more modest drop in profit of about 8 per cent to US$5.5 billion. The bank notched US$6.06 billion in pre-tax profit in 2013.
The bank's shares jumped more than 5 per cent in London on Wednesday morning on news that it would pay a full-year dividend of 86 US cents per share, on par with 2013.
"Our performance was disappointing," Jaspal Bindra, the bank's departing Asia chief executive, said in Hong Kong on Wednesday.