Standard Chartered 1st Half Net Profit Up 11% At $2.1 Billion

Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN) said Wednesday that its net profit for the first half of the year rose 11% from a year earlier as loan impairment charges fell sharply.

Net profit for the six months ended June 30 was $2.1 billion, up from $1.88 billion a year ago, when it booked a $248 million gain from a notes buyback, the Asia-focused bank said in a statement.

Pretax profit was $3.12 billion, up from $2.84 billion in 2009, and in line with analysts' expectations.

Loan impairment losses across the bank fell to $437 million from $1.09 billion.

"We continued our strong performance in the first half of 2010 and both of our businesses have had an encouraging start to the second half," Chairman John Peace said.

U.K.-based Standard Chartered-which derives more than 90% of its income from emerging markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East-has outperformed its U.K. peers due to its large exposure to Asia, as emerging markets have rebounded at a faster rate following the global financial crisis.

-By Patricia Kowsmann, Dow Jones Newswires. Tel [phone], [e-mail]

(Aries Poon in Hong Kong contributed to this article.)

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