HSBC, which has market value of $160 billion, reported on Wednesday a pretax profit of $30.3 billion for 2023, up 78% increase from $17.5 billion a year earlier. The results were worse than the $34.1 billion mean average estimate of brokers compiled by HSBC.
The British lender rewarded investors with a fresh $2 billion share buyback, and said it would consider a special dividend of $0.21 per share in the first half of 2024 once its Canada disposal is complete.
However, the record-high annual profit was marred by a $3 billion impairment on the bank's stake in China's Bank of Communications.
The writedown in the lender's BoCom stake came after a review of the Chinese bank's likely future cash flows and outlook for loan growth and interest margins, HSBC said, amid China's shakier-than-expected economic recovery.
The large write-off came after rival Standard Chartered in October took a nearly $1 billion hit on its own China bank stake, as widening loan losses compress lenders' profits.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/h ... 0by%20HSBC
Also posted on Company News here; viewtopic.php?p=648209#p648209
HSBC are down over 3.5% on HK market.
A RNS no doubt will be issued at 0700hrs UK time. nb, Their own report proved difficult to download (For me anyway .)
Ian (I hold HSBC).