Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) executive director and CEO Peter Sullivan (left) with chief financial officer Julian Fong in Hong Kong on Tuesday. (AFP)

London, Aug. 8 (Reuters): Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered Plc signalled it has quit the race to buy Korea's LG Card as it narrowly beat analysts’ forecasts with a 15 per cent rise in half-year profits on Tuesday.

Standard Chartered had been one of the front-runners to buy a majority stake in South Korea’s LG Card, potentially worth over $5 billion, and final bids were expected by Thursday.

“We did look at LG Cards,” Standard Chartered chief executive Mervyn Davies told reporters on a conference call.

Asked whether his use of past tense was deliberate, he said: “Yes, I did use the past tense,” and declined to specify further.

Davies was more optimistic for a deal in Pakistan soon.

It is close to buying a majority stake in Pakistan’s Union Bank, officials said last month, which could see it pay over $300 million for a stake of at least 66 per cent.

“We’re optimistic that we can get a deal and it would be a very good transaction for us,” Davies said. He said a deal would be funded from internal resources.

Standard Chartered said in its interim results statement it could make more major acquisitions to support growth. Davies said Turkey is high on the radar after it said the price paid for Denizbank, bought by Dexia in May, was too high.

“Turkey is a very attractive market, without doubt. Whether we re-emerge or not we’ll see,” he said.

The London-headquartered bank reported an operating profit before tax of $1.53 billion for the six months to the end of June, above a consensus forecast of $1.49 billion, despite losses in Taiwan.