Standard Chartered Q1 pretax profit climbs 20%, beats forecasts

[HONG KONG] Standard Chartered Plc posted on Wednesday a better- than-expected 20 per cent rise in pretax profit for the first three months of the year, helped by a surge in loan demand and improvement in asset quality.

Pretax profit for the bank, which focuses on Asia, Africa and the Middle East, rose to US$1.26 billion in the quarter from US$1.05 billion in the same period a year ago, it said in a filing to the stock exchange.

That was above an average estimate of US$1.21 billion drawn from nine analysts in a poll collated by the bank.

REUTERS