Hong Kong investors to urge HSBC to break up

THE boss of HSBC will be urged to carve up the bank in two when he meets retail investors in Hong Kong for the first time in three years and China increasingly asserts control over the business.

Noel Quinn, the chief executive, and Mark Tucker, the chairman, are to hold an informal meeting with shareholders on Tuesday, following the publication of HSBC’S half-year results. It will be the first time since 2019 executives have met with Asian retail investors, who own one third of HSBC’S shares.

Bosses previously clashed with Hong Kong investors over the decision to cancel the dividend in 2020, while many also remain unhappy about poor share price performance. At the same time, HSBC is battling calls from its top shareholder Ping An, the Chinese insurance giant, to spin off the Asian part of the bank into a separate entity – a move many in Hong Kong would support.

Simon Yuen, founder of Surich Asset Management, which represents a number of HSBC retail shareholders, said next week’s meeting was likely to be “quite difficult” for Mr Quinn and Mr Tucker.

He added that many shareholders in Hong Kong support proposals to split off the bank’s more profitable Asian operations. This is because of increasing monetary policy divergence between Western and Asian countries, and because it may boost the share performance of each part of the bank.

Mr Yuen said: “Splitting the bank into two geographical businesses, one focusing on Western countries and the other on China or Asia Pacific territories, would be more beneficial for the bank.”