Standard Chartered results ‘not yet where they need to be,’ says CEO
The bank will not issue a dividend and posts a pre-tax loss in the fourth quarter
Standard Chartered said on Friday that it would not be issuing a dividend this year, and announced pre-tax profits that failed to meet analysts’ expectations.
The news drove its share price down 5 per cent in early trading in London, and capped a disappointing results season for Hong Kong’s larger banks.
Our financial returns are not yet where they need to be
Standard Chartered announced a pre-tax loss of US$359 million for the fourth quarter of 2016, albeit one that was 58 per cent smaller than the loss it posted in the same period a year earlier.
“Our financial returns are not yet where they need to be,” said Bill Winters, Standard Chartered’s global chief executive, in a statement to the Hong Kong and London stock exchanges.
For 2016 as a whole, Standard Chartered posted statutory pre-tax profits of US$409 million, turning around the previous year’s loss of US$1.5 billion.
A poll of eight analysts by Bloomberg had predicted pre-tax profits of US$1.33 billion, but even once one-off items were removed, the bank still only posted pre-tax profits of US$1.1 billion.
“Standard Chartered didn’t resume the dividend which will be taken as disappointing,” wrote Bernstein analyst Chirantan Barua in a note to clients.