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HSBC CEO Noel Quinn is retiring.
Hong Kong – HSBC has announced that its chief executive, Noel Quinn, will retire – a surprise departure from its tenacious leader of five years, who oversaw a sweeping series of asset sales across the world.
The Asia-focused bank said in a statement on Tuesday that it has launched a formal process to find a successor.
Chief Financial Officer Georges Elhedery, appointed to the second position in January 2023, is likely the leading internal candidate for the role.
Quinn, 62, restored momentum to the bank’s profits and share price by getting rid of or downsizing underperforming businesses, including the lender’s retail banking businesses in the United States and France, all of its subsidiaries Canadian and units in smaller markets, such as Argentina. .
Shares of HSBC (HSBC), which rose about 30% during his tenure, rose about 1.3% to a nine-month high in afternoon trading in Hong Kong.
“I think reducing business in Western markets such as the US, Canada and Europe was a good move for HSBC, while also boosting the group’s Asian business,” said Simon Yuen, founder of Surich Asset Management , based in Hong Kong, which is a shareholder in HSBC.
“We hope that the next CEO will lay out more plans, in terms of execution, to further grow the bank’s business in Asian countries,” he added.
Quinn will remain CEO until his successor takes over the role.
“I have performed intensive leadership roles since taking on a commercial banking role in October 2008, so I am personally ready for a change,” Quinn told reporters by phone.
“It is also a natural inflection point for the bank, as it reaches the end of the current transformation phase. It is the ideal time to bring in leadership to move the bank forward over the next five years.”
HSBC President Mark Tucker said the bank aims to complete Quinn’s succession process by the 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 resign, adding that the decision was Quinn’s and that the board supported it.
Quinn, who joined HSBC in 1987, was named chief executive of the bank, which makes most of its revenue and profits in Asia, in March 2020 after serving as interim CEO following the surprise resignation of his predecessor.
He played a crucial role in overcoming challenges during and after the coronavirus pandemic, as well as increasing geopolitical tensions that weighed on the bank’s main 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 to get HSBC to spin off its Asian business, which ended in defeat at the HSBC shareholders’ meeting. bank last year. .
HSBC has also faced criticism in recent years from Western lawmakers over its dealings with China amid rising geopolitical tensions. Hong Kong is HSBC’s largest global market.
HSBC reported pre-tax profit of $12.7 billion, slightly above forecasts, in the quarter ending in March, up from $12.9 billion a year earlier, as it struggles to cope with rising utility costs. expansion in Asia.
The London-based bank also announced share buybacks worth $3 billion, in addition to the $2 billion in share purchases announced in February.
