Standard Chartered to invest US$300 million in China operations, misses consensus estimates with fourth-quarter loss

Name: Hong Kong imposes toughest social-distancing rules yet as Covid-19 caseload hits another record high
Uploaded: 2022-02-17T05:30:42.000Z
Duration: 4 min 4 s
Description: Hong Kong imposes toughest social-distancing rules yet as Covid-19 caseload hits another record high

Pre-tax loss was US$208 million, missing a consensus estimate of a pre-tax profit of US$288 million

Bank announces US$750 million share buy-back programme, increases annual dividend to 12 cents a share

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Standard Chartered and crosstown rival HSBC have seen their shares trade near two-year highs in recent weeks on investor optimism about rate hikes. Photo: Bloomberg

Chad Bray

Published: 1:30pm, 17 Feb 2022Updated: 6:04pm, 17 Feb 2022

Standard Chartered, one of Hong Kong’s three currency-issuing banks, said it would invest US$300 million in its China business and seek to cut another US$1.3 billion in costs over the next three years, as it reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss.

The London-based lender, which generates much of its revenue in Asia, said it would seek to double its China onshore and offshore profit before tax by 2024, as it sought to capture opportunities related to the continued opening up of the country’s financial markets.

The lender reported a pre-tax loss of US$208 million in the fourth quarter, missing a consensus estimate of a pre-tax profit of US$288 million, but it was an improvement on a pre-tax loss of US$449 million reported a year earlier. On a net basis, Standard Chartered reported a loss of US$457 million versus a loss of US$610 million in the prior-year period.

“We have never been better positioned in China and the opportunities never greater,” Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters said on a conference call with analysts. “This, despite the current credit related challenges we all see.”

04:04

Hong Kong imposes toughest social-distancing rules yet as Covid-19 caseload hits another record high

The quarter included US$285 million in restructuring costs, as well as a US$295 million impairment related to its investment in China Bohai Bank, a US$95 million reserve increase related to its China commercial real estate business and a US$94 million bank levy charged by the UK government.