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Standard Chartered PLC on Wednesday upgraded its income guidance as it achieved record growth in its Wealth Solutions and Global Markets segments. In its third-quarter of trading, pretax profit for the London-based, Asia-focused lender nearly tripled to $1.72 billion from $633 million the year prior. This was driven by a record quarter in its Wealth Solutions division which benefitted from broad-based growth across its products. It also reported a strong performance in its Global Markets business which saw growth in flow and episodic income. This was supported by a 59% reduction in losses across its central & other items division to $201 million from $491 million the year prior. Net interest income was down 23% to $1.48 billion from $1.93 billion the previous year. Year-to-date, the FTSE 100-listed firm reported a 32% increase in pretax profit to $5.21 billion from $3.9 billion the year prior. Net interest income fell 21% to $4.66 billion from $5.91 billion in the same period last year. Standard noted that it is ‘accruing a foreseeable dividend in respect of the final 2024 ordinary share dividend in the third quarter’. The firm upgraded its income guidance for 2024, expecting it to grow towards 10%. Guidance was also revised for the subsequent two years, with operating income expected to increase 5-7% between 2023 and 2026, adding that 2025 growth is expected to be under the 5-7% range. Standard expects to return at least $8 billion to shareholders between 2024 and 2026, representing an upgrade from previous guidance of at least $5 billion. Shares in the firm are up 3.1% at 903.60 pence on Wednesday morning in London. Standard Chief Executive Bill Winters said: ‘We have delivered a strong performance in the third quarter with profit before tax up ... driven by a record quarter in Wealth Solutions and strong growth in our Global Markets business. ‘We are doubling investment in our consistently fast-growing and high-returning wealth management business, and we will continue to reshape our mass retail business to focus on developing our pipeline of future affluent and international banking clients. In our CIB business, we are taking actions to focus on larger global clients who rely on our unique cross-border capabilities. ‘These actions will further simplify our business and help us to generate higher quality growth and improve our return on tangible equity over the medium term. ‘We are increasing both our 2026 return on tangible equity target from 12% to approaching 13%, and our shareholder distribution target from at least $5 billion to at least $8 billion from 2024 to 2026.’ Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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