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HSBC to axe 6,100 jobs
Mon, Mar 02, 2009
AFP
LONDON, ENGLAND - HSBC PLC, Europe's largest bank by market value, said on Monday it will raise US$17.7 billion (S$27.5 billion) by issuing shares after reporting a 70 per cent drop in profits in 2008, when the financial crisis deepened.
Net profit fell to US$5.7 billion last year from US$19.1 billion a year earlier due to greater charges on the value of its assets and operating expenses, the company said.
HSBC's Tier 1 capital ratio - a key indicator of a bank's financial strength - fell to 8.3 per cent in 2008 from 9.3 per cent a year earlier, but it said the share issue would boost that to 9.8 per cent. The company, which unlike rivals Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and Lloyds Banking Group PLC has avoided taking government bailout funds, cut its dividend to $0.64 per share, a 29 per cent decrease from 2007.
The British banking group said it would axe 6,100 jobs in the United States by shutting most of its HFC and Beneficial branches.
'In this difficult environment, we missed our profitability targets,' HSBC chairman Stephen Green said in the group?s earnings statement.
'The coming twelve months will be difficult. We expect parts of Asia, the Middle East and Latin America to continue to outperform Western economies, but to be constrained by the global downturn.'-- AFP
Mon, Mar 02, 2009
AFP
LONDON, ENGLAND - HSBC PLC, Europe's largest bank by market value, said on Monday it will raise US$17.7 billion (S$27.5 billion) by issuing shares after reporting a 70 per cent drop in profits in 2008, when the financial crisis deepened.
Net profit fell to US$5.7 billion last year from US$19.1 billion a year earlier due to greater charges on the value of its assets and operating expenses, the company said.
HSBC's Tier 1 capital ratio - a key indicator of a bank's financial strength - fell to 8.3 per cent in 2008 from 9.3 per cent a year earlier, but it said the share issue would boost that to 9.8 per cent. The company, which unlike rivals Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and Lloyds Banking Group PLC has avoided taking government bailout funds, cut its dividend to $0.64 per share, a 29 per cent decrease from 2007.
The British banking group said it would axe 6,100 jobs in the United States by shutting most of its HFC and Beneficial branches.
'In this difficult environment, we missed our profitability targets,' HSBC chairman Stephen Green said in the group?s earnings statement.
'The coming twelve months will be difficult. We expect parts of Asia, the Middle East and Latin America to continue to outperform Western economies, but to be constrained by the global downturn.'-- AFP
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