Yahoo Finance HSBC investors demand greater focus on Asia under new boss
HSBC’s Hong Kong shareholders have demanded the bank appoint an Asian chief executive and focus more on the region after the unexpected retirement of Noel Quinn.
Activist Ken Lui, who leads Spin-Off HSBC Asia Concern Group from Hong Kong, said: “The group should consider candidates in Asia or Hong Kong, who have better experience doing business in the region.”
Another shareholder, Surich Asset Management founder Simon Yuen, told Reuters: “I’d expect the candidate would be someone with vast experience in Asian and Middle East markets, who is open minded on the bank’s strategy and could re-consider the option of re-domicil[ing] HSBC’s headquarters to Asia.”
Hong Kong is HSBC’s largest market and home to thousands of ordinary investors who hold shares in the company.
Mr Ken told Reuters: “For our small shareholders, HSBC is a Hong Kong company.”
Pressure to focus more closely on the region comes after Mr Quinn, HSBC’s current chief, surprised investors on Tuesday by announcing plans to step down this year, kicking off a face to find his successor.
The vacant role has revived tensions between the bank and Hong Kong shareholders, who say the £185bn lender puts too much focus on London.
HSBC saw off a shareholder rebellion last year from Chinese insurer Ping An, its biggest investor, who had called for a break-up of the group. Ping An called for HSBC Asia to be spun out on the stock market, with HSBC retaining a stake.
The company accused HSBC of failing to give enough prominence to Asian talent. Despite making most of its profits in Asia, the bank continues to be run from London and overseen by British regulators in the form of the Bank of England.
Mr Quinn and all of his predecessors have been based in the UK.
After taking over in 2019, Mr Quinn sought to improve the bank’s presence in Hong Kong, moving the two executives responsible for the bank’s profit engines – wealth and commercial banking – to the former British colony.
However, Asian people are still underrepresented in the upper echelons of the bank. Only a small proportion of HSBC’s current executives are from Asia. David Liao, the co-head of HSBC’s Asia-Pacific business, is the only senior executive who comes from Hong Kong.
Mark Tucker, the bank’s chairman, has refused to be drawn on whether the new chief executive would come from Asia. He has said the process of finding a new chief has only just begun but should be completed by the end of the year.
