The Banking Executive Magazine - February 2025 Issue

Standard Chartered Standard Chartered Shares HIT NEAR DECADE PEAK AFTER PROFIT RISE, $1.5BLN BUYBACK Standard Chartered announced a new $1.5 billion share buyback on Friday after reporting its annual profit rose 18% on record growth in its wealth business and a strong per- formance of its markets division, driving its shares to a near-decade high. The Asia, Africa and Middle East-fo- cused bank is doubling down on its mainstay wealth management and markets business, even as an uncer- tain global growth outlook and a di- vergent interest rate policy are expected to cast a cloud over West- ern banks in the near term. "Growth in our footprint markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East is set to outpace global growth... and we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this," StanChart CEO Bill Winters said in the bank's earnings statement. StanChart's Hong Kong-listed shares reversed earlier losses, rising 4.4% to HK$116 ($14.93) apiece at close, the highest since July 2015, slightly out- pacing the market benchmark index which was up 4%. Its London shares were up around 5% at market open. Michael Makdad, senior market an- alyst at Morningstar, said the $1.5 billion new share buyback was larger than some expectations of an initial buyback of around $1 billion. The London-based lender reported pretax profit for 2024 of $6 billion, up from $5.1 billion the year before and slightly below the $6.2 billion average of analysts' forecasts as com- piled by the bank. StanChart has said it would invest $1.5 billion over five years in wealth and digital platforms, client centres, people and brand and marketing, to accelerate income growth and re- turns. "We are confident that our increased investment and greater concentration will help us to outperform the market in terms of asset gathering and in- come growth over the medium term," Winters said in the statement. BOOST FROM NEWWEALTHY CLIENTS The bank has said it is targeting $200 billion of net new money, or assets generated from existing and new clients, from 2025 to 2029, a double- digit compounded annual growth rate in wealth solutions income from 2024 to 2029. the BANKING EXECUTIVE 30 ISSUE 194 FEBRUARY 2025