Standard Chartered’s third-quarter pre-tax profit falls by half to US$633 million on mounting bad loan provisions to China’s property sector
- London-based bank’s pre-tax profit misses analysts’ estimates of US$1.49 billion
- Standard Chartered’s net loss stood at US$35 million for the July to September quarter, against a gain of US$964 million a year earlier
The emerging-markets focused lender made a net loss of US$35 million for the July to September period, against a profit of US$964 million a year earlier.
The London-based bank, which generates much of its revenue in Asia, reported US$633 million in pre-tax profit, a decline of 54 per cent from US$1.39 billion last year, missing analysts’ estimates of US$1.49 billion polled by Bloomberg.
“We have continued to make strong progress in the third quarter against the five strategic actions outlined last year, delivering a solid set of results,” chief executive Bill Winters said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday.
“We remain highly liquid, and well capitalised, with a CET1 [common equity tier] ratio towards the top of our target range and confident in the delivery of our 2023 financial targets, including a return on tangible equity of 10 per cent.”
Standard Chartered took credit impairment charges of US$294 million during the quarter, an increase of 37 per cent from a year earlier. This included a further US$186 million related to its China commercial property portfolio as a debt crisis in the real estate sector shows no signs of abating and weaker-than-expected economic growth.