HSBC's $2.5 billion buy-back boosts shares

Hong Kong/London: HSBC announced a $2.5 billion share buy-back and pared ambitions to grow dividend payouts and returns as it took pragmatic steps to soothe investors amid slowing growth in its home markets of Britain and Hong Kong.
The lender's London-listed shares were trading 3.6 per cent higher at 0808 GMT after the buy-back took the sting out of a 29 per cent drop in January-June pretax profits, which matched analysts' expectations.
As Britain's vote to leave the European Union clouds economic prospects and Hong Kong absorbs slower growth in China, HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, has opted to "remove a timetable" for reaching its targeted return on equity (RoE) in excess of 10 per cent by the end of next year. Return on equity at end-June was 7.4 per cent.
"Abandoning the timetable for reaching a 10 percent RoE is not pessimistic as much as realistic that interest rates in the United States aren't going up and 'lower-for-longer' is brutal for them," Richard Buxton, chief executive officer of Old Mutual Global Investors, one of HSBC's 30 largest investors, said.
Group chief executive Stuart Gulliver said the bank had removed the word "progressive" from its guidance on dividend payout plans, as a reflection of tougher market conditions. "'Progressive' was interpreted by everyone as meaning it is going to go up every quarter notwithstanding what is happening in the world, so what we are saying is we are committed to sustain the dividend at the current level," he told Reuters.
While investors interpreted the new guidance as pragmatic, analysts at Shore Capital said they were "less than convinced" by the management's pledge to maintain the dividend, noting that both Gulliver and chairman Douglas Flint are set to step down in the next couple of years.
"With the earnings outlook continuing to deteriorate ... a future dividend cut could therefore still be on the cards, especially if a new leadership takes a different view."
Capital boost
The share buy-back follows HSBC's disposal of its Brazil unit last month in a $5.2 billion deal. Gulliver said HSBC's core equity ratio would move to 12.6 per cent from 12.1 per cent at the end of June, following the buy-back, in line with the bank's target range of 12-13 per cent.
The bank could announce further buy-backs up to the value of the entire Brazil disposal in the future, Gulliver said, depending on the global economic outlook next year and beyond. HSBC's reserves could be boosted yet further as the bank repatriates capital 'trapped' in the United States following the sale of assets from its disastrous 2003 purchase of consumer lender Household.
The core capital ratio in HSBC's North America business was in the mid-20s and Gulliver said it could remit a 'material sum' as dividends to the bank's London-based holding company, boosting the Group's capital further.