StanChart profit climbs but misses estimates, $1.5 billion buyback launched
By Selena Li and Lawrence White
HONG KONG/LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Standard Chartered STAN.L reported on Tuesday that full-year pretax profit rose 16% on robust performances from its global banking and wealth businesses, although the result fell somewhat short of analysts' estimates.
The emerging markets-focused lender also announced a $1.5 billion share buyback that it said would start imminently, and noted that its full-year dividend was up 65% from a year earlier.
"We are seeing robust growth in our larger markets, and structural shifts in global trade and investment play to our distinctive strengths serving our clients' cross-border and affluent banking needs," Chief Executive Bill Winters said in a statement.
StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia and Africa, reported pretax profit for the full year of $6.96 billion, missing the $7.2 billion average of 16 analyst estimates compiled by the bank.
Some of the miss was due to its full-year non-interest rate revenue, which came in at $9.71 billion, up 12.9% on the year but behind an average forecast of $9.95 billion.
The lender's Hong Kong-listed shares 2888.HK were down 2% after the results, in line with the wider market .HSI.
The bank's wealth management division shone, with income soaring 24% in 2025 on double-digit growth in both its investment products and bancassurance businesses.
Its global banking division - which offers lending, capital markets and trade services to cross-border clients - saw a 15% rise in income, driven by higher business volumes and increased capital markets activity.
Succession plans at the bank are in the spotlight following the recent abrupt departure of former Chief Financial Officer Diego De Giorgi, who left to join asset manager Apollo Global Management after less than three years in the role.
He was widely regarded by investors and analysts as the leading internal candidate to succeed Winters, 64, who has been in the role for a decade and is now the longest-serving CEO for a major British lender.
De Giorgi's exit removes one of the key architects of the lender's "Fit for Growth" cost-cutting programme, which is due for a critical review in May.
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