LONDON - Standard Chartered reported a 24 percent fall on Tuesday in its profit during the first half of the year, as the firm took a $1 billion charge connected to its operations in South Korea.
Although the bank is based in London, its businesses are spread across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where the financial crisis is starting to take a toll.
Standard Chartered said that it had generated net income of $2.1 billion in the six months through June 30, compared to $2.8 billion in the same period last year.
When adjusted for one-off costs, the firm’s pretax profit rose slightly, to $4.1 billion, over the same period, in line with analysts’ estimates.
The firm’s bottom line suffered from a $1 billion one-off charge to its South Korean business, which has been hit by an increasing number of delinquent loans, poor domestic economic conditions and stringent local regulation.
Standard Chartered had announced in June that it would take a charge on its South Korean business. The British bank had expanded its operations in the Asian country after acquiring Korea First Bank for around $3.3 billion in 2005.
“Korea continues to be our most difficult market,†Standard Chartered’s chief executive, Peter Sands, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We expect that the second half will also be very difficult.â€
Shares in the British bank, which generates around 90 percent of its earnings from emerging markets, rose 2.7 percent in morning trading in London on Tuesday.
The firm also said that loan impairments across its global operations had risen 27 percent, to $730 million, as the British bank added that it was not on target for “double-digit income performance for 2013.â€
Last year, Standard Chartered agreed a $327 million settlement with federal and state prosecutors in the United States related to allegations that it had illegally handled money for Iranian banks and corporations.
