Standard Chartered sees second-quarter profit more than double, resumes interim dividend payout

Name: ‘Hong Kong is my home’: Expats explain why they’re staying put
Uploaded: 2021-08-03T04:37:08.000Z
Duration: 7 min 46 s
Description: ‘Hong Kong is my home’: Expats explain why they’re staying put

The emerging-markets focused bank said it would pay an interim dividend of 3 US cents a share, buy back US$250 million in shares

Pre-tax profit was US$1.15 billion, beating a consensus estimate of US$816 million

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Chad Bray

Published: 12:37pm, 3 Aug 2021Updated: 10:49pm, 3 Aug 2021

Standard Chartered, one of Hong Kong’s three currency-issuing banks, said its profit more than doubled in the second quarter as it joined larger crosstown rival HSBC in restoring its interim dividend to shareholders and said it would buy back an additional US$250 million in shares.

The London-based bank and other United Kingdom lenders suspended their dividends last year at the request of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), an arm of the Bank of England, to make sure they had enough capital on hand to support the economy in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The suspension spurred a revolt among some investors in Hong Kong.

Standard Chartered and HSBC, which both generate much of their revenue in Asia, were allowed to pay a modest dividend for full-year 2020 this year and the PRA removed “temporary guardrails” that restricted how much they can distribute to shareholders in July. The share buy-back follows a US$255 million repurchase programme in the first quarter.

The emerging-markets focused bank said it would pay an interim dividend of 3 US cents a share. Analysts expect the bank to pay a dividend of 19.5 US cents a share over the course of the year, according to market consensus.

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‘Hong Kong is my home’: Expats explain why they’re staying put

“The negative impact of zero interest rates a year ago had a very substantial impact on our income at the end of last year and the beginning of this year,” Bill Winters, the bank’s CEO, said at a press conference in Hong Kong. “We were able to largely, but not completely, offset that by good, strong underlying business growth. That growth was driven by our business in Asia. Very encouraging results in Hong Kong, China and the rest of Asia, complemented by good results elsewhere.”

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