Mason Baxter: HSBC Profit Exceeds Forecasts

Mason Baxter: HSBC to spend $2 billion on share buybacks this year. End Quote

...the buying back of stock will add to the repurchases that, since last year, have helped drive the company's stock price up by more than 50%

(1888PressRelease) August 23, 2017 - Mason Baxter: With the departure of CEO Stuart Gulliver who increased revenue and cut expenses, HSBC Holdings Plc has unveiled Q2 profits that have exceeded analysts’ forecasts. The lender has since stated that it will spend in the region of 2 billion dollars acquiring its own stock.

In a recent filing, Europe’s biggest lender stated that its adjusted pretax profit had risen by 13% from a year prior. Profit at its top three units increased and the bank’s stock increased by 2.9% in Hong Kong to the highest since late 2014.

“Although Gulliver’s efforts to change the course of the bank following a series of substantial fines for its role in a number of scandals were thwarted by an inability to increase revenue, the buying back of stock will add to the repurchases that, since last year, have helped drive the company’s stock price up by more than 50%,” said an analyst at Shanghai-based investment house, Mason Baxter.

HSBC Finance Director, Iain Mackay, previously stated that up to $8 billion could be retrieved from its U.S. units and that a share of this would be assigned to stock repurchases. After HSBC’s North American operation underwent a Federal Reserve stress test last month, in excess of $3 billion was authorized to be paid out to shareholders.

Gulliver, whose task of turning the bank around has been made somewhat easier by rising interest rates worldwide, remains optimistic. In a recent statement he said that HSBC is on track to complete most of their strategic plans by the end of 2017.

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