Standard Chartered announces buyback but profit shy of consensus

Standard Chartered PLC on Tuesday announced a new $1.5 billion share buyback but reported annual and fourth quarter profit that fell short of consensus.

The lender’s fourth quarter pretax profit edged up 1.8% to $814 million from $800 million a year prior, falling short of company-compiled consensus of $1.06 billion.

Reported operating income edged up 2.6% on-year in the final quarter to $4.93 billion from $4.80 billion.

For the whole of 2025, pretax profit shot up 16% to $6.96 billion from $6.01 billion, but was shy of consensus of $7.21 billion. Operating income rose 7.2% from $20.94 billion from $19.54 billion.

‘2025 was another year of strong momentum. We achieved an underlying return on tangible equity of 14.7%, exceeding our three-year plan a full year early. We have made a good start to the year and continue to benefit from a supportive business environment. 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.

StanChart declared a 49 cents per share final dividend, up 75% from 28 cents a year prior. It made for an annual dividend of 61 cents, up 65% from 37 cents.

In addition, it announced a $1.5 billion share buyback, which kicks off immediately.

Looking to 2026, it expects constant currency operating income growth at the bottom end of a 5% to 7% range.

It sees a statutory RoTE ‘greater than 12%’.

‘We will host a capital markets event in May of this year where we will describe how these trends position the group for the next phase of growth, as well as detailing the expected financial outcome,’ it added.

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