Standard Chartered share price: Indonesia head planning to step down

The head of Standard Chartered’s (LON:STAN) Indonesia business is set to leave the Asia-focused lender, Bloomberg has revealed. The move will come amid a review of the group’s operations in the country, prompted by changes to rules on foreign-owned lenders.

Standard Chartered’s share price has fallen deep into the red in today’s session, having lost 1.77 percent to 496.05p as of 13:14 BST. The group’s shares are underperforming the broader London market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently 0.88 percent worse off at 5,914.47 points, pressured by uncertainty ahead of next week’s EU referendum. The bank’s shares have lost over a half of their value over the past year, and are down just under 12 percent in the year-to-date.

People with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg today that Tse Koon Shee, head of StanChart’s business in Indonesia, was in discussions to join another financial institution. The newswire noted that the London-listed lender was currently reviewing its 152-year-old operations in the country as the government changes the rules on foreign-owned banks, meaning the group must decide whether to merge the two lenders it owns in Indonesia, or sell one of them.
The report of Shee’s potential departure comes amid an ongoing restructuring at the Asia-focused bank under chief executive Bill Winters. Last month, news emerged that StanChart expects revenue and profit from its South Asia operations to start improving from next year as the group recovers from its record $1.34 billion of provisions against loans to Indian borrowers last year.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs meanwhile remain bullish on StanChart, reiterating their ‘buy’ rating on the stock today, with a price target of 720p. RBC Capital, however, reaffirmed the Asia-focused lender as an ‘underperform’ last month, valuing the shares at 300p.
As of 14:09 BST, Thursday, 16 June, Standard Chartered PLC share price is 496.65p.