BREAKINGVIEWS-StanChart succession race claims another favourite

By Peter Thal Larsen

LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A few weeks ago, Standard Chartered STAN.L Chief Executive Bill Winters fielded a familiar question from one of the emerging market bank’s largest shareholders. “How long do you think you will keep going for?” Nicolai Tangen, the head of Norway’s giant sovereign wealth fund, asked during a podcast interview released at the end of January. “As long as you’ll let me,” Winters shot back. The exchange hints at the long-running debate about who will replace the 64-year-old boss at the helm of the $55 billion bank. The abrupt departure of Chief Financial Officer Diego De Giorgi on Tuesday means StanChart’s board urgently needs to update its succession plan.

De Giorgi, who is joining Apollo Global Management APO.N as head of the asset manager’s EMEA operations, was viewed as the firm favourite to succeed Winters, who has led StanChart for over a decade. Since joining the bank two years ago De Giorgi has helped to sharpen its strategy and cut costs. StanChart shares, which had languished below the bank’s tangible book value for years, have trebled since the former Bank of America and Goldman Sachs dealmaker arrived. The prospect of joining the senior ranks at Apollo, which is nearing $1 trillion in assets, was doubtless hard to resist. Nevertheless, his sudden exit two weeks before StanChart is due to release its 2025 results understandably makes investors nervous. The shares tumbled 5% on Tuesday morning.

De Giorgi is not the first heir apparent at StanChart to underestimate Winters’ determination to stick around. In 2024 the CEO unveiled a management overhaul that resulted in the departure of Simon Cooper, StanChart’s long-serving corporate banking chief and contender for the corner office. Winters’ habit of outlasting potential successors invites comparisons with his former boss at JPMorgan JPM.N, Jamie Dimon, who has seen off numerous challengers in his two decades at the helm of the U.S. banking giant. Indeed, Winters himself was the victim of one of Dimon’s reshuffles back in 2009.

The future of a global bank with more than 80,000 employees will always depend on more than one or two key executives. Nevertheless, investors and regulators demand that a bank with $900 billion of assets makes plans for a smooth and orderly CEO succession. One of the key tasks facing Chair Maria Ramos, who took the helm last year, is to oversee the process of identifying and installing Winters’ replacement. De Giorgi’s departure makes that more urgent, and potentially more complicated.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Standard Chartered shares tumbled on February 10 after the lender said its Chief Financial Officer Diego De Giorgi had left the bank.

De Giorgi stepped down from the Asia- and Africa-focused bank following a two-year stint, StanChart said.

He is joining Apollo Global Management as head of the EMEA region, the asset manager said in a separate statement.

StanChart’s London-listed shares were down 5% at 18.03 pounds as of 1100 GMT on February 10.