HSBC said last month it would take further charges against its more than US$12 billion of exposure to commercial real estate in China, where it is the biggest foreign bank, as a third of those assets are “substandard” or “impaired,” according to Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson. The sector is nonetheless “modest” in the context of HSBC’s overall lending book, Stevenson added.
The “massive” correction to China’s commercial real estate market may have at least another two years to run, according to HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn.
“It’s a faster correction and a more decisive one than I was expecting, or I think anyone was expecting, and I think it’s got quite a while to go before it really stabilizes,” Quinn said at a Bank of America Corp. conference on Tuesday. “You could be looking at another two plus years of correction.”
