Naming a tower? Trump’s a blast
BANKS promised to tighten up their lending after the financial crisis — but a red warning light from HSBC has thrown that into doubt. Buried deep in its latest tome is a startling admission that one in two HSBC loans to oil and gas firms are sub-par. That’s about $13 billion (£10.4 billion) worth, SAGE words from Gil Dezer, the straggly former real-estate business partner of Donald Trump.
The tower-builder says of the orange President: “He is the only real-estate brand in the world. I said it’s better to have Trump’s name on a building than some building named wind or sun or star or whatever stupid names people come up with.”
Because Trump doesn’t sound like naming a tower after wind…
the same size as the economy of Albania. One third of HSBC’s oil loans are rated “satisfactory” but the number judged “substandard” or “impaired” doubled to nearly 20% last year. The bank has taken a $300 million writedown — a sign that bank lending is as risky as ever?