Standard Chartered earnings up

LONDON—Standard Chartered Plc has reported a 26-percent increase in net earnings to $13.97 billion and operating profit before tax (OPBT) of 13 percent to $4.57 billion. Almost 80 percent of the income growth came from organic businesses.

The first half of 2008 saw strong economic growth across key markets driven by strong regional trade flows but performance in the second half was dampened as the financial crisis began to have an impact on the real economy across the world.

Customer deposits rose 31 percent during 2008, most of it coming in the last quarter as confidence in financial institutions declined.

“We want to seize the opportunities arising from this turbulence. We have a clear and consistent strategy, and continue to invest for growth,” Peter Sands, group chief executive of Standard Chartered, said in a press statement.

Most of Standard Chartered’s key geographies delivered strong performance with seven of the nine geographic regions recording income of over $1 billion in 2008.

Singapore saw OPBT rise 67 percent, India by 37 percent, Middle East and Other South Asia (MESA) by 25 percent, Korea by 10 percent and Africa by five percent.

Despite an excellent first half, Hong Kong reported an OPBT decline of 15 percent as the macroeconomic environment worsened in the latter half.