HSBC has long argued that its shareholding in China’s Bank of Communications is critical to its strategy and symbolic of its strong ties to the country. Perhaps, though, those ties aren’t as strong as it thought. The Chinese government recently elbowed HSBC aside in a $17bn capital raising. Awkward as that looks for the Hong Kong lender, Beijing might have actually done HSBC a favour.
HSBC’s holding in BoCom has fallen to 16 per cent from 19 per cent, the bank confirmed on Wednesday, as it reported a $2.1bn charge from writing down the value of its stake. China’s move was part of a broader injection of some $70bn across four of the country’s bigger banks to boost their lending ability.
HSBC does not appear to have been asked to follow the money. Should it have been, BoCom’s second-largest backer would most likely have balked — or its own investors would have — but its hard to avoid the sense of a slight when the result is the biggest change in HSBC’s holding since it first took a stake in 2004.