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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
HSBC CEO announces surprise retirement | |
By Reuters | |
Updated: | |
10:17 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Hong Kong — HSBC has announced its chief executive Noel Quinn will | |
retire — a surprise departure by its hard-nosed leader of five years | |
who has overseen a sweeping series of asset sales across the globe. | |
The Asia-focused bank said in a statement Tuesday that it had launched | |
a formal process to find a successor. | |
Chief financial officer Georges Elhedery, appointed to the No. 2 role | |
in January 2023, is likely the leading internal candidate for the job. | |
Quinn, 62, has restored momentum to the bank’s profits and share | |
price by getting rid of or underperforming businesses, including the | |
lender’s retail banking businesses in the and France, its entire | |
Canadian subsidiary and units in smaller markets such as . | |
HSBC’s () shares, which have gained roughly 30% during his tenure, | |
rose about 1.3% and touched a nine-month high in the afternoon session | |
in Hong Kong. | |
“I think shrinking businesses in Western markets such as the US, | |
Canada and Europe has been a good move for HSBC at the same time as | |
boosting the group’s Asian business,” said Simon Yuen, founder of | |
Hong Kong-based Surich Asset Management, which is an HSBC� | |
shareholder. | |
“We do hope that the next CEO would lay out more plans, | |
execution-wise, to further increase the bank’s businesses in Asian | |
countries,” he added. | |
Quinn will remain CEO until his successor starts in the role. | |
“I’ve held intensive leadership roles since I took on a commercial | |
bank role in October 2008, so I’m personally ready for a change,” | |
Quinn told reporters on a call. | |
“It’s also a natural inflection point for the bank, as it comes to | |
the end of the current transformation phase. It’s an ideal time to | |
bring in leadership to move the bank forward over the next five | |
years.” | |
HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker said the bank was aiming to complete | |
Quinn’s succession process by second half of this year. | |
“He (Quinn) first informed me of this earlier this month,” Tucker | |
said of the timing of Quinn’s decision to step down, adding that the | |
decision was Quinn’s own and that the board supported it. | |
Navigating challenges | |
Quinn, who joined HSBC in 1987, was named the chief executive of the | |
bank, which makes most of its revenues and profits in Asia, in March | |
2020, after serving as an interim CEO following the surprise ouster of | |
his predecessor. | |
He played a crucial role in navigating challenges during and after the | |
coronavirus pandemic, as well as heightened geopolitical tensions that | |
weighed on the bank’s key market, China. | |
He also won a major showdown with the bank’s No. 1 Asian investor, | |
China’s Ping An Insurance, which ran a multi-year campaign to try and | |
get HSBC to its Asia business, which at the bank’s shareholder | |
meeting last year. | |
HSBC also faced criticism in recent years from Western lawmakers over | |
its dealings with China amid growing geopolitical tensions. Hong Kong | |
is HSBC’s single largest market globally. | |
HSBC reported pretax profit of $12.7 billion, slightly ahead of | |
forecasts, for the quarter ended March versus $12.9 billion a year | |
earlier, as it struggles to cope with rising costs from expansion in | |
Asia. | |
The London-headquartered bank also announced $3 billion worth of share | |
buybacks on top of $2 billion in share purchases announced in February. | |
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