Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) is closing its global equities business, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Operations to be shut include cash equities, equity capital markets and equity research, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. The London-based company will keep its convertible bonds and equity derivatives businesses, said one of the people.

The closures will affect more than 200 people in Asia, another person said. Piers Townsend, a spokesman for the company in Singapore, declined to comment.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Sands is targeting about $400 million of cost savings this year as he tries to reverse profit declines. The bank posted a 16 percent drop in third-quarter pretax profit to $1.53 billion from a year earlier as impairments for bad loans almost doubled and regulatory and compliance costs increased.

Shares (2888) of the U.K. bank rose as much as 2.2 percent in Hong Kong, the biggest gain in almost three weeks, and traded at HK$113.40 at 10:12 a.m. local time.

Separately, Standard Chartered will this quarter reduce its headcount in Malaysia by 11 percent, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-07/standard-chartered-said-to-shut-global-equities-business.html