Standard Chartered’s third-quarter net profit rose 10 per cent, as strong growth in cross-border trade loans and wealth management buffered one of Hong Kong’s three note-issuing banks from the city’s commercial property slump and helped it beat analysts’ estimates.
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Net profit increased to US$1.03 billion, or 44.5 US cents per share, in the quarter that ended in September, the London-based bank said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday. The result, based on global accounting rules, surpassed the US$984 million expected by analysts.
Pre-tax profit rose 3 per cent to US$1.77 billion, beating the analysts’ consensus estimate, said the bank, which generates most of its business from Asia.
“We now expect to deliver an underlying return on tangible equity of around 13 per cent in 2025, hitting our target a year earlier than planned,” Standard Chartered’s CEO Bill Winters said in the exchange filing. “Progress is broad-based, but our sharper strategic focus on servicing our clients’ cross-border and affluent banking needs is paying off, with strong double-digit growth in wealth solutions and global banking, alongside good momentum in our global markets flow business.”
The bank’s earnings growth was partly offset by rising bad debt. The bank booked US$195 million in credit impairments in the third quarter, 10 per cent higher than a year earlier.
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This included a US$25 million provision made for the Hong Kong commercial real estate sector to “capture the increased pressure on liquidity, interest serviceability and repayment capacity,” the bank said. The bank has kept US$60 million in overlay for Hong Kong commercial real estate clients, the report said.