The US$450 million impairment charge – largely relating to offshore China commercial real estate exposures booked on its Hong Kong balance sheets – was the result of local policy measures that had led to an increase in “refinancing risk and liquidity pressures,” CEO Noel Quinn said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Those market conditions have improved, to some extent, in the early part of 2022.”
HSBC Holdings took a charge relating to its Chinese commercial real estate exposure and warned of a weaker performance in its wealth business in Asia, blemishing fourth-quarter results that saw the lender boost plans to return billions of dollars to investors.
The London-based bank will initiate a share buyback of as much as US$1 billion ($1.35 billion), on top of an earlier US$2 billion program, according to an earnings statement on Tuesday. The lender posted a 79% increase in adjusted pretax profit to about US$4 billion in the fourth quarter, roughly in line with company-compiled estimates.
