 Standard Chartered bought Korea First Bank in April |
Standard Chartered, the UK-based bank which does the majority of its business in Asia, has seen half-year pre-tax profits rise by 20%. The company saw its shares end Monday trading up 86 pence or 7.64% to 1,211p on the London Stock Exchange.
Profit was $1.33bn (�744m), from $1.1bn in the first half of 2004, helped by the inclusion of results from Korea First Bank.
Standard bought South Korea's seventh largest bank for $3.3bn in April 2005.
"Standard is firing on all cylinders. I think both businesses (consumer and wholesale banking) have good income momentum and we expect them to deliver continued income growth," said chief executive Mervyn Davies.
Mr Davies said the firm was interested in buying a stake in a Chinese bank. Standard Chartered already has a 19.99% holding in China's Bohai Bank.
Debts issue
In the past half year, Standard Chartered has been the best-performing firm in the UK banking sector.
It has been insulated from recent concerns expressed by other major British banks about the rise in UK bad debts.
Standard Chartered makes about two-thirds of its earnings in Asia, and also operates in Africa and the Middle East.
"Revenue increases have been genuinely across the board," said Leigh Goodwin, analyst at HSBC.
"Costs were in line with what we had been expecting and provisions for bad debts were slightly below."
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Revenue increases have been genuinely across the board
