Standard Chartered mulls sale of wealth, retail operations in Africa

STANDARD Chartered is exploring a potential divestment of its wealth and retail banking operations in Botswana, Uganda and Zambia, it said on Wednesday (Nov 27), as the banking giant restructures its operations in a bid to trim costs.

The Asia-focussed lender, like rival HSBC, is shaking up its business to focus more on affluent individual customers and international companies that are likely to yield more in fees for the bank.

It has for some time been pivoting away from its once globe-spanning empire to focus on core businesses as it bets on strong economic growth in Asian markets and aims to rein in expenses.

Standard Chartered said the potential exits in Africa would be the first in a small number of business divestitures in accordance with its new target of doubling investment in its wealth unit while paring back retail banking.

The bank, like HSBC, has in the recent past reaped the benefits of higher borrowing costs and comparatively resilient wealth generation and economic growth in Asia.

StanChart said while announcing its third-quarter earnings in October it was looking at opportunities to sell some or all of a small number of businesses where the “strategic rationale is not sufficiently compelling”.

The cost-cutting measures will see the lender save around US$1.5 billion over three years while expenses climb amid expanding business operations and rising pressures from sticky inflation.

The financial effects of the proposed exits are not material to the group, StanChart said.

The lender’s London-listed shares were trading about 0.1 per cent higher, while those in Hong Kong were up 0.2 per cent. REUTERS

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