Recasts and writes through with CEO comments on succession

By Selena Li and Lawrence White

HONG KONG/LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Standard Chartered's STAN.L full-year pretax profit rose 16% on robust performances from its global banking and wealth businesses, and longtime CEO Bill Winters signalled his intention to steer the lender through the next phase of its strategy.

StanChart also announced a $1.5 billion share buyback and a full-year dividend that was up 65% from a year earlier.

Questions around Winters' succession planning had intensified in recent weeks following the abrupt departure of CFO Diego De Giorgi, seen as his most likely successor.

The longest-serving CEO of a big British bank since he took on the role in June 2015, Winters said he will present StanChart's next strategy at its capital markets event in May then stay to see that plan through, without saying how many years that might entail.

"The board has also been clear they would like me to see through this strategy in terms of my own succession," Winters said.

De Giorgi, one of the key architects of the lender's "Fit for Growth" cost-cutting programme, moved to asset manager Apollo Global Management this month after less than three years as StanChart's CFO.

Though StanChart's Hong Kong-listed stock finished 3% higher after the earnings, its London shares fell 0.7% in early trade as uncertainty over U.S. trade policies dragged European markets down more broadly.

BOOST FROM SUPPLY CHAIN TURMOIL

The earnings report showed Winters has made progress on the bank's strategy of further shifting to fee-based businesses as it capitalised on global trade turmoil.

The bank has particularly benefited from the trend of Chinese corporates going out to boost their overseas presence and offshore investments, Manus Costello, the bank's global head of investor relations, told Reuters.

Business volumes between China and a cluster of Southeast Asian countries grew notably by 20% last year, he said, while volumes between China and the Middle East and between China and Africa were up 18% and 25% respectively.

Supply chain confusion and disruptions are likely to persist after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a huge swath of tariffs imposed by Trump.

WEALTH MANAGEMENT INCOME SOARS

StanChart also set out modest new guidance for statutory return on tangible equity, a key profitability metric, to be greater than 12% in 2026, compared with previous guidance of 13% on an underlying basis for last year.

The bank, which earns most of its revenue in Asia and Africa, reported pretax profit for the full year of $6.96 billion, narrowly 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 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.

(Reporting by Selena Li in Hong Kong and Lawrence White in London; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

((Selena.Li@thomsonreuters.com; +852 39525868;))