HSBC update fails to provide any real surprises, say analysts

Shares in HSBC fell 1.1% on Tuesday after the company outlined a round of job cuts and branch closures in its latest investor update.Shore Capital said the update was "rather uninspiring", and essentially reaffirms previously-held commitments around costs, returns and dividend policy, while aiming to add flesh to the bones of how these will be achieved.The only piece of material new information appears to be the announcement that the bank aims to reduce its risk weighted asset base by $290bn, with an emphasis on cutting back exposures in global banking and markets to less than one third of the group total, versus 42% at December 2014."We question whether management will be able to achieve this and deliver on its commitment to grow revenue," said Shore.Shore reiterated its negative stance on the stock, and 'sell' rating, saying there is little in the headlines of Tuesday's announcement for investors to get excited about.Meanwhile, Bernstein said that HSBC has failed to bring out anything radically different from moves that have been widely expected for some months now. It said the update "was not the massive shake-up some investors had been hoping for."It pointed out that management is targeting annual cost savings of $4.5-5bn by 2017, to be achieved via a costs-to-achieve programme with a total spend of $4-4.5bn. "That isn't materially different from what the bank set out as a target at the 2014 annuals but the spend is around $2.5bn more than we had in our numbers," said Bernstein.As far as exits are concerned, it said that HSBC had already earmarked four geographies for restructuring - Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and the US. Of the bank's decision to exit Brazil and Turkey, Bernstein said: "good move, wrong timing and already expected." It added that the sale of the Brazil business has been well flagged.Bernstein rates the stock at 'market perform'.