HSBA.L - HSBC Holdings plc
| Previous close | 569.70 |
| Open | 574.00 |
| Bid | 579.40 x 0 |
| Ask | 579.40 x 0 |
| Day's range | 573.20 - 582.20 |
| 52-week range | 0.78 - 687.70 |
| Volume | 18,197,002 |
| Avg. volume | 32,073,903 |
| Market cap | 117.771B |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 0.57 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 9.00 |
| EPS (TTM) | 64.40 |
| Earnings date | 17 Feb 2020 |
| Forward dividend & yield | 0.31 (5.48%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 2019-10-10 |
| 1y target est | 9.20 |
- Reuters - UK Focus
'Green' steel needs innovative financing to meet huge bills - HSBC
Steel, the biggest industrial contributor to climate change, needs innovative financing such as "transition bonds" to help pay the massive costs of turning green, the head of HSBC's sustainable think tank said. Making steel is energy intensive, often using coal, and contributes about 7% of total global emissions of carbon dioxide. While technologies are being developed to lower and eventually halt steel's contribution to climate change, finding financing to pay for it is a challenge, said Zoe Knight, head of HSBC's Centre for Sustainable Finance.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 2-FTSE enjoys best day since July; mid-caps gain for 4th week
London's FTSE 100 surged more than 1% on Friday after two days of selling, as investors turned cautiously optimistic about a Sino-U.S. trade deal and exporter stocks rose after the pound weakened on downbeat U.K. Purchasing Managers' Indexes (PMI) data. The FTSE 250 added 0.6%, though gains were capped by data that showed British business this month suffered its deepest downturn since mid-2016 amid uncertainty around the general election and Brexit. Further keeping gains in check was a 9% slide in Hochschild Mining after its 2020 output targets disappointed, and an 8% drop in thread manufacturer Coats Group after it warned on annual profit.
- Bloomberg
This Is How Businesses Can Adapt to Rising Global Risks, Leaders Say
(Bloomberg) -- Explore what’s moving the global economy in the new season of the Stephanomics podcast. Subscribe via Apple Podcast, Spotify or Pocket Cast.How businesses can adapt to the new world of heightened political risks and cutting-edge technologies were key themes of discussion on the second day of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Beijing.“The biggest risk in 2020 is the relationship between the major trading powers and economies of the world,” Gary Cohn, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. president and former director of the Trump administration’s National Economic Council, said on the forum’s sidelines.If the world continues to fracture rather than working together, the global economy will suffer, said Cohn. “We need each other to grow.”In a nod to the tensions over the race to dominate 5G technology, Li Zixue, chairman and executive director of ZTE Corp., said tensions over national security will be inevitable as it is rolled out. But he also sought to downplay the differences.“The 5G network will certainly give rise to more complex and more severe security issues,” he said. “Personally, I believe these problems will be solved.”Still, Diana Choyleva, chief economist at London-based Enodo Economics, reckons there’s only a 5% chance of the two superpowers agreeing on technology standards.On Europe, former U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond said the worst outcome for his country’s December election would be a “a very small Tory majority government” where Prime Minister Boris Johnson would be “captive” to hard-liners. If that’s not bad enough, he also warned that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s policies would be an “economic disaster.”Here’s a selection of remarks from some of those present:DecouplingAs a carry-over from the forum’s first day, participants worried about a world where the U.S. and China build separate systems for trade and technology.“Oh my God, it is so radical an idea to decouple,” Scott Kennedy, an expert on the U.S.-China economic relationship at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said on Bloomberg Television.The bar for “crazy” has moved from deterrence, anti-dumping and countervailing duties, to sanctions, and “now we are talking, ‘let’s rip these two economies apart,”’ which is “nuts,” Kennedy said.Also pleading for more engagement between the two economies, and globally, was Susan Shirk, research professor and chair of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California San Diego and a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state.“I believe that China is overreaching and America is overreacting and it creates a really dangerous dynamic,” Shirk said on Bloomberg Television. She recalled former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s remarks from the forum’s first day, and called for more “clear thinking in the U.S.”Deal or No DealWhile corporate and political leaders mulled the way forward over the long-term, they also discussed how business must go on, divorced from the daily trade-war headlines.Firms are “having to constantly adapt, and they can’t wait for political resolution” on Brexit or U.S.-China trade battles, said HSBC Holdings Plc interim Chief Executive Noel Quinn.Michael Froman, Mastercard Inc. vice chairman and former U.S. trade representative, called the phase-one deal “largely a purchase deal,” and “the easy piece.” He echoed others at the forum in saying the real issue is how do the two countries accommodate each other when they are following different rules.Froman warned that if China continues to part ways from U.S.-style industrial policy, “it will not be surprising to see opposition in the U.S. and Europe and elsewhere given the distorted effect on international trade. The question is: How do we move to a common set of rules?”Tech WarsBeyond tariffs, analysts and business leaders mulled how to ensure that potential bifurcation in technology doesn’t hamper innovation.Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group, told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin that while some U.S.-China decoupling already is underway, there are still questions over which countries will choose sides around a “virtual Berlin wall,” and “how high the wall is.”“The level of trust has all but gone away” and while “the United States will continue to innovate on its own, and of course China will innovate on its own,” so many big global initiatives require collaboration, said Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo and founding partner of AME Cloud Ventures.“What we need is a strategy for tech engagement in China, and it’s time to have that conversation,” said Samm Sacks, a fellow on cybersecurity policy and China digital economy at the Washington-based New America Foundation.We’ll end this on something of an optimistic note.“Artificial intelligence is not the thing you see in the movies,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s former chief executive officer and currently a top technical adviser to the Pentagon. “It’s going to revolutionize health care. That’s going to be better done by computers, advising the doctor: the doctor will make the decision.”The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.\--With assistance from Kristine Servando.To contact the reporters on this story: Michelle Jamrisko in Singapore at mjamrisko@bloomberg.net;Enda Curran in hong kong at ecurran8@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net, Adrian KennedyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters - UK Focus
Swiss software group Avaloq hires banks for 2020 sale or IPO-sources
ZURICH/FRANKFURT, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Private equity group Warburg Pincus is working with Goldman Sachs and Barclays on the planned 2020 sale or initial public offering of Swiss banking software company Avaloq, people close to the matter said. The buyout group, which owns 45% of Avaloq, is expected to launch an auction in the first quarter of 2020. Avaloq founder Francisco Fernandez, management and employees also hold shares in the company.
- Bloomberg
Tiffany Is Worth the $16 Billion Extravagance
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Advent calendars are bang on trend right now, and Tiffany & Co. is selling one of the most indulgent ever. For $112,000, lucky recipients can open little blue windows to reveal bangles from its Tiffany T line, delicate floral earrings, silver novelties and perfume.Reflecting the sheer luxury of it all, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE has made a revised proposal to buy Tiffany at $130 per share, valuing the U.S. jeweler at about $16 billion including assumed net borrowings.Its previous approach at $120 per share was too skinny. At the higher level, both sides stand a chance of getting a nice gift in the countdown to the holidays. LVMH should be able to make a return on investment that exceeds the target’s cost of capital. Tiffany investors would receive a 32% premium to the price of the company’s shares before Bloomberg News revealed the initial approach.At $130 per share, LVMH will probably want to increase Tiffany’s operating profit contribution to around $1.5 billion in order to generate a 7-8% post-tax return. Given the French group’s scale and track record, that’s feasible.LVMH has more than doubled sales at Bulgari, which it acquired in 2011. But the Italian jeweler is a misleading benchmark: An equivalent feat at Tiffany looks ambitious given that it’s a much bigger company.Analysts aren’t anticipating much growth for Tiffany’s sales this year, according to the consensus of Bloomberg estimates, but revenues are expected to increase about 4% in 2021 and 2022. Deborah Aitken of Bloomberg Intelligence puts the long-term growth of the jewelry market at 5% a year. LVMH expanded its overall group sales in the third quarter at about three times the industry median, Aitken notes.On that basis, it has scope to outperform the jewelry market, too. To achieve this, LVMH would likely accelerate Tiffany’s retail expansion in Asia. With its financial clout, it could also turbocharge product development, and back new styles with more muscular marketing. Meanwhile, it could better fulfill Tiffany’s broader potential in lifestyle segments, such as fragrances and watches.So a more realistic forecast would be that under LMVH, Tiffany’s sales could grow a bit, but not much faster than the market — say 7% per year. After five years, sales would be 40% higher than this year, or around $6.3 billion.Margins would have to climb to 23% to hit the profit hurdle. Again, that’s plausible. In the short term, profits could well take a hit, as the new owner invests in products and stores. But with analysts at Royal Bank of Canada estimating Cartier’s operating margin at comfortably over 30%, and Van Cleef & Arpels and Bulgari each in the low-to-mid 20s, there is potential to lift Tiffany’s margin, which is anticipated at near 18% this year.Each side has something to gain from a transaction. For LVMH, that’s dominating the market for jewelry. For Tiffany, it is avoiding the tricky task of executing a turnaround in a U.S. recession on its own.The U.S. group’s strategy, including introducing new designs that appeal to younger customers, is a sensible one. But it has yet to deliver fully, and that’s before any sign of a downturn. If its suitor walks away, it would likely struggle to convince investors that it can maintain the share price around current levels without takeover interest. It was trading at $98.55 before LVMH’s approach.With the two sides entering talks, Tiffany will be pushing for an even higher price. Analysts at HSBC see potential for a deal at $135 per share. LVMH shares fell 1% on Thursday.But with no signs of a counter bidder emerging right now, LVMH Chief Executive Officer Bernard Arnault has the upper hand. Just because he can afford it doesn’t mean he should be as extravagant as one of those advent calendars.\--With assistance from Chris Hughes.To contact the author of this story: Andrea Felsted at afelsted@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Melissa Pozsgay at mpozsgay@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She previously worked at the Financial Times.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Yahoo Finance UK
Saudi Aramco sidelines big global banks in IPO process
Saudi Aramco has chosen just HSBC and two local brokers to oversee all investor orders.
- Bloomberg
Hong Kong Home Prices Look Immune to Protests
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Hong Kong’s protests are damping real estate activity, spurring speculation of a long-overdue tumble in the city’s notoriously expensive housing market. Prices are likely to prove more resilient than some expect.Home transactions have dropped by more than half from this year’s peak in May, before the unrest began, to 3,447 in September and 4,001 last month, figures from the Hong Kong Land Registry show. While the series is volatile, that’s about a fifth below the average number of monthly sales in the past five years. Amid worsening violence in November, the number of transactions in 15 housing estates tracked by Midland Realty International Ltd. slumped 78% last weekend from a month earlier.With tear gas and transport disruptions an almost daily occurrence across multiple districts, it’s hardly surprising that potential home buyers have been deterred from viewing apartments. Yet a widely followed index of prices compiled by Centaline Property Agency Ltd. has slipped only 4.4% from its high in June. The gauge has actually risen in the past two weeks.Three key factors combine to mitigate against a crash in what is regularly ranked as the world’s least affordable housing market: low interest rates, inadequate supply, and high levels of equity.Financing remains cheap. Hong Kong’s one-month interbank rate, against which most mortgages are priced, has risen sharply in November, to 2.53% from an average of 1.72% in October. That’s still relatively low on a longer-term perspective, though. One-month Hibor was above 5% in 2007 and peaked at more than 20% in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis, when property prices crashed. Moreover, many mortgages have a cap that’s determined by banks’ prime lending rates. HSBC Holdings Plc, the city’s biggest bank, reduced its prime rate last month for the first time in 11 years, by 12.5 basis points to 5%. That followed a cut in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s base rate. Hong Kong interest rates track those in the U.S. because of the local currency’s peg to the dollar; the Federal Reserve has lowered its target three times since July.Meanwhile, supply remains constrained. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has announced programs to boost construction of public housing, but these won’t bear fruit for years. Hong Kong has a 10-year supply target of 450,000 homes. Even if achieved, that goal is 10% less than projected demand, according to Bloomberg intelligence analyst Patrick Wong.The third pillar of support is relatively low leverage. Hong Kong home buyers have been forced to finance purchases with an increasing amount of equity as prices have climbed. The loan-to-value ratio for new mortgages dropped to 46% in September, from a peak of 69% in 2002, according to data from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The de-facto central bank tightened down-payment rules five times between August 2010 and February 2013 to combat speculation. Loans can finance a maximum 50% of the purchase price for the most expensive properties — those costing more than HK$10 million ($1.28 million) — under current rules.While low leverage won’t prevent prices from falling, it makes it harder for home owners to fall into negative equity and limits the risk of a self-perpetuating downward spiral of selling. Higher down payments make speculation more expensive and encourage owners to hang on to their real estate even in bad times.To be sure, there’s more that could go wrong. If the protests persist, they could start to infect Hong Kong’s financial markets, pressuring the currency and stocks. Growing instability could deter mainland Chinese buyers who have been a key driver behind the real estate boom, though their presence has already diminished as a result of anti-speculation measures targeted at non-residents. And a worsening of the U.S.-China trade conflict could tip Hong Kong’s economy deeper into recession.For the meantime, the market appears to be holding firm. These days, declining sales volumes don’t necessarily translate into a slump in prices. The two have diverged since 2010 when the government started tightening mortgage rules and imposing special sales taxes, according to Cathie Chung, senior director of research at real estate broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Hong Kong property prices have more than tripled since the global financial crisis, defying repeated predictions of a tumble. No downturn has exceeded 15% in the past decade. This time may be no different. To contact the author of this story: Nisha Gopalan at ngopalan3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Nisha Gopalan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and banking. She previously worked for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones as an editor and a reporter.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
Ex-JPMorgan Trader Convicted for Helping Rig Currency Market
(Bloomberg) -- A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker was convicted of conspiring with traders at other banks to rig bids and fix prices in currency markets -- a victory for prosecutors in their campaign against collusion in foreign exchange.A federal jury in New York on Wednesday took less than four hours to find Akshay Aiyer guilty of a single count of conspiracy to violate antitrust laws, following a trial that lasted more than two weeks.He’s the second person to be convicted in a crackdown on dubious practices used by currency traders and faces as long as a decade in prison and a $1 million fine when he is sentenced on April 3.Prosecutors had relied on testimony from two alleged conspirators, former Citigroup trader Christopher Cummins and ex-Barclays banker Jason Katz, who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Cummins and Katz testified that the traders plotted in chat rooms, on the phone and at social gatherings to rig trades while leading customers to believe that they were actually competing with each other.Conviction a Reminder“This conviction serves as a reminder of our commitment to hold individuals responsible for their involvement in complex financial schemes which violate the integrity of the global financial markets,” Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said in a statement. Aiyer and his lawyers declined to comment after the verdict.The conviction shows that antitrust prosecutors can successfully pursue currency-market cases despite previous acquittals, said Philip A. Giordano, a partner with Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and a former prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.The verdict also underscores the importance of the role that victims play in these types of trials, as the government called representatives of asset management firms who testified that they were harmed by the traders’ collusion, he said.“That helps to put the other evidence, the evidence from the co-conspirators, in perspective,” Giordano said. “It shows that the alleged conduct did not occur in a vacuum. The conduct is less susceptible to interpretation when it is connected to a negative impact on a customer. It makes it easier for the jurors to accept the prosecutors’ assessment of the facts.”Read more on judge throwing out a related caseDefense lawyers argued that all three of the traders made their decisions independently. They argued that Cummins and Katz had been colluding with other foreign-exchange traders for years before they even met Aiyer and were simply trying to save themselves by implicating him to avoid prison.Aiyer is a native of India who came to the U.S. in 2002 to attend college. He joined JPMorgan in 2006 and worked there until 2015, first as a foreign-exchange analyst and later as a trader.The first person charged in the crackdown, Mark Johnson, a former global head of foreign exchange at HSBC Holdings Plc, was found guilty in 2017 of front-running a $3.5 billion client order. But a U.K. court refused to extradite Johnson’s underling, Stuart Scott, and three British traders accused of similar conduct were acquitted by a jury in New York last year. U.K. investigators dropped a criminal probe into individual traders, finding there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute.Banks around the world have paid more than $10 billion in penalties for misconduct in the currency markets since the crackdown began. Citigroup Inc., Barclays Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and JPMorgan Chase pleaded guilty in 2015 to rigging currency rates and agreed to pay about $2.5 billion to the Justice Department as part of an overall $5.8 billion settlement with multiple regulators.The case is U.S. v. Aiyer, 18-cr-333, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).(Updates with sentencing date in third paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Steve StrothFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
HSBC Set to Replace Investment Bank Chief Assaf in Overhaul
(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.HSBC Holdings Plc is set to replace its top investment banker as part of an overhaul by interim Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn, according to people familiar with the matter.Samir Assaf, 59, who has been head of global banking and markets for almost a decade, will be moved to a non-executive role at HSBC, said one of the people, who asked not to be named discussing an internal matter. The decision will be announced later this year or in early 2020, according to the person.The Lebanese-born banker started leading the GBM division in 2011 and has been at HSBC and its predecessor firms for a quarter of a century. He is stepping back as Quinn, who’s seen as likely to make cuts at the investment bank, seeks to put his stamp on the company and keep the top job permanently, having replaced the ousted John Flint in August.The sprawling lender, which makes almost 90% of its profit in Asia and employs 240,000 people, walked away from a key profitability target last month. It said write-offs are likely for some of its European business and previous sums spent on technology.A spokeswoman for HSBC declined to comment. The move was earlier reported by the Financial Times.HSBC has a bench of possible in-house successors to Assaf, should it decide to not seek external applicants. One candidate is Greg Guyett, an American who was hired by HSBC last year. The veteran of Asian-focused roles at JPMorgan Chase & Co. took sole control of global banking after Robin Phillips departed. Other possibilities include Georges Elhedery, head of global markets.Chairman Mark Tucker recently told staff that the bank needed to improve profitability, saying 30% of the lender’s capital generated returns of less than 1%. Quinn’s restructuring -- HSBC’s third in a decade -- is likely to result in cuts to investment banking operations outside of HSBC’s core Asian markets. Continental Europe and North America are the main targets.The Paris-educated Assaf began his career at Total SA, France’s biggest oil producer, and joined HSBC when the London-based bank acquired Credit Commercial de France in 2000. His ascent gathered pace after the 2006 departure of former top investment banker John Studzinski, who had been tasked with building the business into a global power -- an ambition that was later curtailed.In 2006, Assaf became markets chief for Europe, the Middle East and Africa; two years later, he had been promoted to head of global markets. He succeeded Stuart Gulliver atop the investment bank when the latter was made HSBC’s CEO.In recent years, global banking and markets has had a mixed financial performance and several conduct issues. Assaf’s division accounted for 28% of HSBC’s profit in 2018 -- a year that saw fixed-income trading revenue shrink from a year earlier, underperforming rivals including Barclays Plc.In January 2018, the bank entered a U.S. deferred-prosecution agreement as part of a $100 million settlement of charges involving front-running foreign-exchange clients. The agreement required HSBC to cooperate with any investigation of the bank’s conduct.Several of Assaf’s key lieutenants have departed recently, one after a high-profile sexual harassment case. Thibaut de Roux, who ran the markets arm before Elhedery, left in September 2018 after a junior female employee accused him of inappropriate conduct, people with knowledge of the matter said at the time. The Bank of England has warned HSBC for two years in a row that it hasn’t done enough to tackle concerns about how it handles risks including financial crime and staff conduct -- a caution Assaf himself discussed with executives on a recent conference call, according to people familiar with the matter.The division was also rocked last year by an anonymous memo that criticized the leadership of Phillips, a key Assaf deputy for the past decade. Before that, high-profile Goldman Sachs Group Inc. dealmaker Matthew Westerman was brought in to shake up the business; after serving as global banking co-head with Phillips, he departed after less than two years.(Updates with detail on Assaf’s possible replacement in sixth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Kiuyan Wong.To contact the reporters on this story: Alfred Liu in Hong Kong at aliu226@bloomberg.net;Harry Wilson in London at hwilson57@bloomberg.net;Stefania Spezzati in London at sspezzati@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Candice Zachariahs at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net, Marion Dakers, James HertlingFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
HSBC's "Last Man Standing" Is on His Way Out
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Samir Assaf, the head of HSBC Holdings Plc’s investment bank, referred to himself as the “last man standing” among his generation of peers in London. On Tuesday, it was revealed that he’ll be leaving the post. It won’t be the last big change at the giant Anglo-Asian lender.Slowing global growth, declining interest rates, trade tensions and unrest in Hong Kong are forcing HSBC to pull capital away from under-performing businesses. As such, a deep retrenchment of its investment bank presence outside its core Asian markets — namely in Europe and the U.S. — is inevitable. Assaf has run the unit since 2011, but he will move to a non-executive director role as part of an overhaul of the bank by HSBC’s interim chief executive officer Noel Quinn. The retreat in Europe may be easier under new leadership.Lebanese-born Assaf rose through the HSBC ranks after the British firm acquired Credit Commercial de France SA, where he’d worked previously. Under his watch the investment bank never really hit the big league. Pretax profit from HSBC’s global banking and markets business was $7 billion the year Assaf took over; by 2018, it was $6.3 billion.Even in European bond and currency trading, this powerhouse of global trade has been losing market share to its peers. In Asia, HSBC was ranked first place in fixed income last year, according to data from Coalition Development. In EMEA, it was sixth.A 30% decline in pretax profit at the investment bank in the third quarter of 2019 heightened the urgency. The bank may partially exit stock-trading in some developed Western markets, an area in which it has never been particularly strong. Analysts at Jefferies think HSBC could cut as much as $33 billion of risk-weighted assets at the investment bank to save 25% in costs, while losing about 10% of revenue in Europe and the U.S.HSBC is Asia’s top corporate lender and the region’s top bank for trade finance and cash management. Its investment banking future may be brighter catering to this customer base.A change at the top of the investment bank may also revive a culture that hasn’t always attracted praise. Conduct issues have ensnared HSBC for years. In 2012, it paid $1.9 billion in fines for helping Mexican drug cartels launder money and clients breach sanctions.In a glaring example of its difficulty dealing with alleged misconduct, HSBC last year allowed its former markets chief Thibaut de Roux, to speak at a town hall meeting about conduct while an investigation into his alleged sexual harassment was underway. The Bank of England has admonished the lender for two years running for making insufficient progress in tackling risks around financial crime and staff conduct.Assaf told executives this month that he considered it an emergency situation. Time appears to have run out.To contact the authors of this story: Elisa Martinuzzi at emartinuzzi@bloomberg.netNisha Gopalan at ngopalan3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Elisa Martinuzzi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering finance. She is a former managing editor for European finance at Bloomberg News.Nisha Gopalan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and banking. She previously worked for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones as an editor and a reporter.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
HSBC to replace investment bank head Samir Assaf - source
HSBC will soon announce it is replacing investment banking head Samir Assaf as part of a broader set of forthcoming senior management changes, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Assaf, 59, has run the lender's global banking and markets division since 2011 and will stay with the business in a senior role but no longer manage it, the source said. Employees have not yet been informed in an internal communication about the change, separate HSBC sources said.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 1-Saudi mall operator Arabian Centres sells $500 mln debut Islamic bonds
Saudi mall operator Arabian Centres is set to raise $500 million with a debut issuance of international Islamic bonds, or sukuk, a document by one of the banks leading the deal showed. Goldman Sachs and HSBC have been appointed to coordinate the deal. Credit Suisse, Emirates NBD Capital, Mashreqbank, Samba Capital and Warba Bank have been appointed as bookrunners.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 2-Chinese power firm SDIC to press ahead with London listing
Chinese power generation group SDIC is pressing ahead with plans to launch an offering of global depositary receipts (GDRs) in London under a link with the Shanghai exchange, defying a dismal season for stock listings in Europe. If successful, SDIC will make its London debut in December, becoming the second Chinese firm to float in Britain under the Stock Connect link with the Shanghai exchange. It would also be a bright spot for the London Stock Exchange, which has seen a number of initial public offerings (IPOs) cancelled or postponed amid market uncertainty.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 2-FTSE up for 3rd day on China stimulus hopes, Halma jump
London's FTSE 100 shed most of its earlier gains but still managed to close higher on Tuesday, as sentiment was supported by a surge in safety equipment maker Halma and hopes of more stimulus from economic powerhouse China. The FTSE 250, which had jumped over 1% earlier, ended with a 0.4% gain, still hovering at a 14-month high. Markets are viewing a prospective Tory victory as a positive on hopes that Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with a majority in parliament, will be able to reduce uncertainty by delivering Brexit on or before the Jan. 31 deadline.
- Bloomberg
Louis Dreyfus Shakes Up Management Again
(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.Louis Dreyfus Co. overhauled senior management again, with the departure of an executive close to the commodity trader’s billionaire owner Margarita Louis-Dreyfus.Andrea Maserati, an eight-year company veteran and confidant of the Russian-born heiress and chairwoman, has left, LDC said in a statement on Monday. He will be replaced as chief operating officer by Michael Gelchie, who returned to LDC as head of its coffee platform in July.Maserati’s departure suggests the 168-year-old trading house is making deep changes in a bid to shore up dwindling profits. The COO was seen internally as a powerful executive with strong links to Louis-Dreyfus. The chairwoman and controlling shareholder is seeking cash to repay a loan used to buy out other family member stakes worth about $900 million.“These measures will allow us to streamline our organization in order to be able to better focus on the current challenges of our industry,” Louis-Dreyfus said in the statement, as LDC also named a new head of risk and compliance and made changes to its board of directors.LDC paid a $428 million dividend in the first six months of the year, even as profit fell 45% to $71 million because of the global trade war and weak trading results. Chief Executive Officer Ian McIntosh has said things won’t improve until 2020.Outside-In ViewBefore his departure, Maserati was LDC’s No. 2 executive and often quoted in company statements alongside McIntosh.Still, Maserati’s departure could herald a new era of greater autonomy for McIntosh and his senior executives, said Jean-Francois Lambert, a former commodities banker with HSBC Holdings Plc.“Ian McIntosh is gathering a strong team around him and this may indicate he has earned more room to maneuver and steer the company than his predecessors,” said Lambert who is now an industry consultant.“It seems LDC is on the path to normalization,” he said.Gelchie, a U.S. national, began his career at LDC in 1990 and worked as a senior trader and executive in its sugar, rice and cocoa businesses. He left the firm in 2010 for roles at other companies including Sucden Americas Corp.“Gelchie will bring us not only long-standing experience as a member of the LDC leadership team, but also an important ‘outside-in’ view that will help us to adjust better the company’s operations to current market conditions and the opportunities of the future,” Louis-Dreyfus said.LDC said long-time executive Nigel Mamalis would become the new head of risk and compliance. Mamalis was previously an adviser to McIntosh. Michel Demare, a member of LDC’s board since 2014, was named its deputy chairman.LDC shocked markets and the industry in 2018 with the departure of its CEO and CFO on the same day. There have been a raft of executive changes and departures in recent years. Before McIntosh was appointed in 2018, the company had had five temporary or permanent CEOs in five years.(Updates with comment from industry consultant in seventh paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Hoffman in Geneva at ahoffman31@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Dylan Griffiths, Nicholas LarkinFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters - UK Focus
LIVE MARKETS-Are European banks getting naughtier?
* Qiagen surges as it explores sale Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Julien Ponthus. ARE EUROPEAN BANKS GETTING NAUGHTIER? "While U.S. banks were particularly hit by misconduct costs in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis, European banks have been more exposed since 2015", a study published today by the ECB found.
- Reuters
HSBC, Emirates NBD cut jobs in UAE as banks look to reduce costs-sources
DUBAI/ABU DHABI (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings has laid off about 40 bankers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Emirates NBD is cutting around 100 jobs, as banks in the Arab world's second-biggest economy reduce costs, sources familiar with the move told Reuters. The job cuts come at a time of weak economic growth, especially in the region's business hub - Dubai - which is suffering from a property downturn. HSBC's redundancies came after the London-based bank reported a sharp fall in earnings and warned of a costly restructuring, as interim Chief Executive Noel Quinn seeks to tackle its problems head-on in his bid for the full-time role.
- Reuters - UK Focus
REFILE-HSBC, Emirates NBD cut jobs in UAE as banks look to reduce costs-sources
DUBAI/ABU DHABI, Nov 14 (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings has laid off about 40 bankers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Emirates NBD is cutting around 100 jobs, as banks in the Arab world's second-biggest economy reduce costs, sources familiar with the move told Reuters. The job cuts come at a time of weak economic growth, especially in the region's business hub - Dubai - which is suffering from a property downturn. HSBC's redundancies came after the London-based bank reported a sharp fall in earnings and warned of a costly restructuring, as interim Chief Executive Noel Quinn seeks to tackle its problems head-on in his bid for the full-time role.
- Stockopedia
Is there downside risk to the HSBC share price (LON:HSBA) at 573p?
Momentum is sticky and persists for longer than investors tend to anticipate. The downside of this is that stocks with recent negative momentum are likely to c8230;
- Bloomberg
China Probes Billionaire Exec at U.S.-Blacklisted Hikvision
(Bloomberg) -- Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd.’s shares fell by the most in more than a month after China’s securities regulator opened a probe into alleged misconduct by its billionaire vice chairman.The investigation, announced in a filing Wednesday, deals another blow to the surveillance giant that’s blacklisted by Washington. The Chinese seller of video cameras said the China Securities Regulatory Commission is probing two of its board members -- Gong Hongjia and Hu Yangzhong -- adding that the pair are cooperating with authorities.Hikvision is fighting for its survival after the U.S. banned the company in October, accusing it of helping Beijing crack down on Muslim minorities in the far-western region of Xinjiang. The sanction cut Hikvision off from American chipsets needed for its surveillance cameras. The company denies any wrongdoing. Hikvision’s shares fell as much as 4.5% on Thursday morning, the biggest decline since Oct. 10.Vice-chairman Gong’s fortune peaked in November 2017 at $13 billion but escalating trade tensions between Washington and Beijing have since taken a toll. It’s now worth $6.9 billion as of Wednesday’s market close in China, excluding about 41% of his stake in Hikvision that’s been pledged as collateral, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s still up 21.6% since the beginning of this year, mainly tracking the movement of Hikvision shares.Gong was born in eastern China’s Zhejiang province in 1965 and holds a computer science degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He later moved to Hong Kong, where he founded his first company, electronics maker Tecsun Radio, according to a report by HSBC on Chinese tycoons. He earned the moniker “China’s best angel investor,” creating or investing in more than a dozen companies, the report said. He took up his current position at Hikvision in 2008 and holds a 13.4% stake, making him the company’s largest individual shareholder.Hu is president of Hikvision and holds a stake of just under 2%.The probe centers on alleged misconduct by the men related to the disclosure of information, according to the Hikvision filing. A person familiar with the matter said the issue arose from a bonus plan for employees that hadn’t been declared. The investigation is into the executives rather than the company, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing an ongoing case.A Hikvision representative declined to comment beyond the statement when contacted by Bloomberg News.Hikvision warned last month it may lose customers in overseas markets because of the U.S. blacklisting, underscoring the extent to which curbs on the sale of American technology may hurt the world’s largest video surveillance business. The company said it had anticipated the action and stockpiled enough key parts to keep operations going for some time. It has also said it didn’t foresee major impact on its business as a result of the ban.(Updates with details of share movement.)\--With assistance from Venus Feng.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Gao Yuan in Beijing at ygao199@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Colum MurphyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
As recession takes hold, Hong Kong banks worry about risk of easier mortgage rules
Even as Hong Kong has reduced down-payment requirements to help young professionals and families to buy homes, banks are beefing up mortgage application standards to ensure that a recession does not saddle them with bad loans, bankers and mortgage brokers said. Last month, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, struggling to restore confidence in her administration after five months of civil unrest, approved rules allowing first-time homebuyers to borrow as much as 90% of a HK$8 million ($1 million) home's cost. Historically, mortgage delinquency is rare in Hong Kong, with a rate of about 0.02%.
- Reuters - UK Focus
LIVE MARKETS-UK economy is poised to pick-up post after election
* U.S. futures point to weaker Wall Street open Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Danilo Masoni. Decent GDP growth path is not too far away as the chances of a resolution of Brexit-induced uncertainty is likely and a sizeable fiscal impulse is on the horizon, Goldman Sachs economists say. With Conservatives being favourites to return to power, Goldman Sachs believes clarity on the UK's terms of exit should emerge faster than under a Labour government.
