Standard Bank has released some financial results for its largest shareholder from China, with the group expecting a large rise in earnings for the 2025 financial year.
Standard Bank provided financial information to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), which owns 20% of the group.
The Standard Bank Group discloses to ICBC sufficient information to enable ICBC to equity account the group’s results.
In the first nine months of 2025, Standard Bank said that earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders were 10% higher than in the nine months ended 30 September 2024.
In the first half of the year, headline earnings grew by 8%, and Standard Bank expects headline earnings growth for the first nine months to align with the half-year figures.
Regarding finer details, Standard Bank noted that its retained earnings rose by around R10 billion to R240 billion despite declaring R26 billion in dividends in March and August of this year.
The group left its guidance for the year ended 31 December 2025 from its interim results in August, which includes three core metrics for the 2025 financial year:
- Banking revenue growth of mid-to-high single digits in ZAR;
- Banking cost-to-income ratio to be flat to marginally down year on year;
- Group ROE will remain well anchored in the group’s 2025 target range of 17% to 20%.
The group was confident in hitting these targets, with an expected headline earnings per share growth of 8% to 12%.
