StanChart sets US$1.3 billion buyback as H1 profit outstrips forecasts

[HONG KONG/LONDON] Standard Chartered reported on Thursday (Jul 31) a higher-than-expected 26 per cent jump in first-half pre-tax profit, as a strong performance in the wealth and markets businesses boosted its revenue.

Emerging markets-focused StanChart also announced a further US$1.3 billion share buyback, and an interim dividend of US$0.123 cents a share, its first dividend payment in 2025.

The results show progress in chief executive officer Bill Winters’ key goal of growing revenue across its three main business lines of wealth, trading and banking, despite the uncertain global environment and after spending the first half of his 10-year reign restructuring the bank to slash costs.

The London-headquartered lender’s pre-tax profit for the first six months of this year hit US$4.4 billion, better than the US$3.8 billion average of 15 analyst forecasts compiled by the bank.

H1 income grew 11 per cent and the bank, which earns most of its revenue in Asia and Africa, slightly raised its guidance for full-year income, saying it now expected growth to be at the bottom of a 5 to 7 per cent range rather than below it.

The trading business, StanChart’s second-biggest revenue driver, registered a 28 per cent rise in operating income to US$2.4 billion, propelled by buoyant client trading amid rising market volatility following US-initiated trade talks.

Wealth management income shot up by 24 per cent as efforts to boost fee revenue paid off with inflows, and the number of new accounts rose due to demand for wealth advice amid market volatility.

The bank has said it will target US$200 billion in new assets and double-digit growth in income from its wealth business over the next five years, as part of a wider strategy to shift to higher fee-earning businesses.

It said 135,000 new affluent clients joined the bank in H1 2025, bringing in US$28 billion of net new money.

Hong Kong-listed shares of StanChart rose 1 per cent after the earnings release on Thursday, reversing a morning drop of 4 per cent, while the market was down 1.2 per cent.

The bank’s shares have outperformed Britain’s benchmark FTSE 100 index in recent weeks for the first time since the start of Winters’ tenure.

China losses avoided

The lender also appeared to dodge the multibillion-US dollar China-related write-downs which blighted rival HSBC’s results announced on Wednesday, with StanChart reporting an impairment charge for H1 of US$336 million, mainly from its wealth and retail banking unit.

The bank said its exposure to Hong Kong’s troubled commercial real estate sector was US$2.1 billion, less than 0.5 per cent of its total book, with provisions rising US$34 million in the second quarter of the year to US$116 million.

The lender, however, warned that cash constraints on borrowers could lead to more impairments.

StanChart also kept its key performance targets largely unchanged, although the bank’s chief risk officer, Sadia Ricke, said the risk of “re-escalation in global tariffs” has somewhat moderated.

“Outside tariffs, we remain vigilant in monitoring geopolitical risks across geographies, including the Middle East, and the resultant impact it could have on certain commodities prices,” she said in a statement. REUTERS