Standard Chartered PLC could face “financial consequences” after an investigation in Hong Kong over its role in an initial public offering (IPO), the firm said as it reported another round of disappointing earnings results, sending its shares tumbling.
The lender said authorities were looking into its conduct while cosponsoring the listing in the territory in 2009, dealing another legal blow to the firm, which is already facing a US probe.
“The group has been informed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission that it intends to take action against Standard Chartered Securities (Hong Kong) ... in relation to its role as a joint sponsor of an initial public offering listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2009,” it said in its interim earnings report.
“If it does take action, there may be financial consequences” for the bank, it said in the report on Tuesday.
The announcement came as it said pre-tax profit improved in the third quarter to September, but was still well short of expectations. Revenue was also below forecast.
Standard Chartered shares yesterday plunged 7.12 percent in Hong Kong. Its London-listed shares ended down 5.42 percent on Tuesday.
Last week, Swiss giant UBS AG said it could faced a fine and suspension from sponsoring IPOs in Hong Kong over a listing in the territory.
Neither bank said which IPO the actions referred to, but the Financial Times cited an unnamed source as saying the investigations centered on the listing of China Forestry Holdings Co Ltd (中國森林控股).
Standard Chartered is still being probed by US authorities over claims of bribery by Indonesian power firm MAXpower Group, which is controlled by the bank.
The probe is the latest in a string of legal problems for the bank, which paid US$667 million in 2012 to settle charges it violated US sanctions by handling thousands of money transactions involving Iran, Myanmar, Libya and Sudan.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the