Tag Archives: Asia Investments

Standard Chartered Posts Tenth Year Profits

Chairman John Peace of Standard Chartered

Last year marked the tenth year in a row in which Standard Chartered, the London-listed bank, posted a net profit. Showing a profit of just over 1 percentage point in 2012 despite being hit with a large fine for dealing with Iran against the international sanctions placed on that country.

Standard Chartered inched out its black figure by riding on the wave of excellent expansion on the Asian scene.

The bank reported a pre-tax profit of $6.9 billion during 2012, just surpassing 2011 profits of $6.8 billion. The profits were a bit of an anti-climax considering the fact that analysts had forecast total pre-tax profits for Standard Chartered would reach $7 billion.

The bank has been riding high on strong growth in Asia, and said that it hired almost 2,000 new employees during 2012. They added that they expect to hire a similar number of new employees this coming year as well.

“Standard Chartered remains a growth story and we are sticking to our strategy, focusing on the basics of good banking, in markets we know well, with clients and customers with whom we have deep relationships,” Chairman John Peace said.

Top Trends in Southeast Asia for 2013

Investments in Asia are becoming more and more widespread as the region’s economy shows significant signs of growth. Financial services firms and investment fund management companies like Oasis Investments Limited are keeping their finger on the pulse of this year’s Asia investment trends.

The first is the emerging Yuan bloc. 2012 showed growth in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, while the end of the year boasted a significant currency correlation to the Chinese Yuan as opposed to the United States dollar. This relationship will continue to evolve throughout 2013.

Next, property values in Singapore are rising rapidly. Regulations in the region have failed to cause significant changes in lending standards, and interest rates on property are close to zero.

Furthermore, the recent drop in coal and iron prices have opened up opportunities for road, rail and port building near Myanmar, Cambodia, Northern Thailand and Vietnam. Many companies have invested in coal-producers throughout Asia, including China Shenhua Resources and Bumi Resources.

Demand for liquefied natural gas is also on the rise, prompting the U.S. and Canada to appoint massive LNG export points all across the Gulf Coast.