WOW3 Aug 2016 15:24
Roll on 2017 I say here :-)
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''As the announced buyback has been approved by the PRA we believe this is a positive vote of confidence from the UK regulator on HSBC's ability to generate capital and manage any change in regulatory requirements," said Ronit Ghose, analyst at Citigroup.
The buyback marks a significant shift for HSBC.
It and other banks have been building capital over the last decade to meet tougher capital rules, but even before the financial crisis HSBC did not buy back shares - it preferred to spend surplus cash on acquisitions.
CEO Stuart Gulliver has reversed that strategy and sold 88 businesses since taking over at the start of 2011.
That included the sale of HSBC Bank Brazil last month for US$5.2bn.
It also sold its US credit card business in 2013 and half its US bank branches, which left it with surplus cash in the US. Regulators have not allowed it to return that surplus until now.
The US Federal Reserve has given permission to pay a dividend in 2017, its first since 2007. The bank said that also reflected its success in running down US sub-prime loans and restructuring its US business.
HSBC declined to say how much the US dividend will be, but said it could underpin a possible second buyback.
"We don't yet know what the size of that would be, but you should assume it would be somewhere in the same range as the one we're doing now to make it worthwhile," Gulliver said.
He said the bank was not introducing a rolling buyback programme, but will make one-off decisions.
"Where there is a one-off type event, like when we've sold a business, and we no longer need the shares that supported that business, we will consider buying back those shares."
Gulliver said the bank's long-standing "progressive" dividend policy has been scrapped, but it would not cut the payout as some investors had feared.
"That (progressive) is no longer the dividend policy of the firm, but what we will do is set out a commitment to sustain the annual ordinary dividend at current levels for the foreseeable future," he told reporters on a conference call.
The full-year dividend will be held at US$0.51 a share, offering a yield of 7.5% a year.''
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Looks like My Golden Goose is about to lay another egg in 2017
EVERYONES A WINNER here with HSBC
This time next year Comrade its BINGO time .... Shout out loud to stop the caller :-)
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