Standard Chartered 1st Half Pretax Profit Edges Higher

By Saurabh Chaturvedi

Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN) on Thursday said its pretax profit for the first half of the year rose 2.6%, helped mainly by higher operating income and more loans to customers.

For the six months ended June 30, the pretax profit stood at $2.41 billion, compared with $2.35 billion in the year ago period, the lender said in a stock exchange filing. Its operating income in the six-month period rose to $7.83 billion, up from $7.63 billion a year ago.

The bank's first-half net profit attributable to the parent company's shareholders, however, fell to $1.48 billion from $1.56 billion a year ago, while net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders slipped to $1.26 billion from $1.34 billion a year ago.

Operating expenses in the period rose to $5.30 billion as compared with $5.19 billion a year ago. The lender's credit impairment stood at $254 million, up from $214 million a year ago.

Loans and advances to customers for the period rose to $263.60 billion from $259.33 billion in the same period last year, the bank said. Its net interest margin was, however, unchanged at 1.59% from a year ago.

The bank announced an interim dividend of 7 cents, up from 6 cents a year ago.

Write to Saurabh Chaturvedi at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 01, 2019 01:11 ET (05:11 GMT)

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