The profit from Indian arm of Standard Chartered has exceeded the $1 billion mark for the 1st time. The profit before tax for the year 2009 went up by 19% to 1.06 billion from $891 million last year. Actually, the Indian arm of the emerging markets bank is turning out to be the biggest profit center for the bank.
The disparity in the profits between Hong Kong which till date was the biggest profit center for the bank and India has reduced to $2 million as compared to $98 million in 2008 and $503 million in 2007. StanChart is expected to enter the Indian Depository Receipt (IDR) market in around May-June this year to raise sum between $750 million and $1 billion, thereby making it the initial IDR issue.
Neeraj Swaroop, regional CEO of India and South Asia, StanChart said, “Profits for 2008 also included the sale of Indian AMC operations of $146 million. If this is removed, profits for 2009 would have gone up by 42%. India’s share in group profit is now at 20.5%.” It is for the first time the portion of Indian arm has exceeded the 20% level.
It seems the bank has overtaken big private sector banks like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank with hundreds of branches throughout India. On the other hand, StanCharthas 94 branches in India, the biggest branch network of an MNC bank.