Standard Chartered places shares at 1,360p

4th Aug 2009 14:12

Standard Chartered has placed 75m shares at £13.60 each, raising £1.02bn for the Asia-focused bank.The company announced its plans earlier today alongside a solid first half that saw profits increase by 10% despite a sharp rise in bad debt charges.JP Morgan Cazenove and UBS completed the accelerated bookbuilding process on behalf of Standard.The bank wants the cash because it believes the economic downturn will be shorter and less pronounced in its core Asian markets, which it expects to return to growth far quicker than more developed markets.Its shares have surged higher over the past five months, up from under 600p at the start of March to 1,436p last night, the highest close in over a year.