13th Nov 2015 10:58
LONDON (Alliance News) - Several members of Standard Chartered PLC's board and management team, including Chief Executive Bill Winters and Chairman John Peace, have paid a total of GBP1.6 million to buy shares in the Asia-focused bank, ahead of an upcoming rights issue.
The purchases, revealed in a stock exchange filing on Friday, come after Standard Chartered said earlier this month that it will raise GBP3.3 billion from its shareholders through a rights issue and cut thousands of jobs to save money. Winters is trying to execute a turnaround strategy that will see the group focus more on affluent retail clients and less on asset-intensive corporate and institutional banking businesses.
"These share purchases by a number of our senior directors and management team reflects their belief in the new strategy and the opportunities for our business, given the long term growth prospects in many of our markets across Asia Africa and the Middle East," a spokesperson for the bank said in a statement.
The timing of the share purchases means that the directors are able to take up the rights attached to the newly acquired shares to buy in the upcoming issuance should they wish to do so.
"All are taking the opportunity afforded by the current share dealing window to strengthen their holdings over and above their commitment made to purchase shares in our forthcoming rights issue," the bank spokesperson said.
Fears about China's economic slowdown have hit investor sentiment towards emerging markets, creating a tough backdrop for a bank that makes most of its money in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Impairments for bad loans have been rising for Standard Chartered, and the bank booked USD1.23 billion of such charges in the third quarter, leading to a USD139.0 million pretax loss in the three months to September 30.
The stock, trading up 0.4% at 584.20 pence in London on Friday morning, has lost about 40% of its value so far this year.
Bill Winters, who took the helm at Standard Chartered in June, bought 168,000 shares at 599.08p each, while long-serving Chairman John Peace bought 50,000 shares at 591.20p. Winters now holds 229,035 shares, while Peace holds 183,111.
Two regional chief executives joined Winters and Peace in buying shares. Sunil Kaushal, who took over the bank's operations in Africa and the Middle East at the start of October, bought 20,000 shares at 598.80p. Kaushal has worked at the bank for 18 years.
Ajay Kanwal, another regional boss appointed at the start of October, when he was named as the leader of the bank's ASEAN and South Asia activities, bought 10,000 shares at 597.4p. Kanwal joined Standard Chartered in 1992.
The group's interim chief risk officer, Pam Walkden, bought 20,000 shares at 589.727p. Walkden has been at Standard Chartered since 1991. Michael Gorriz, the group's Singapore-based chief information officer who joined in July, bought 8,403 shares at 589.946p.
All the shares were bought on Thursday, Standard Chartered said.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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