HSBC 1Q19 EARNINGS RELEASE

[idpickering]

John Flint, Group Chief Executive, said:
“These are an encouraging set of results, particularly in the context of heightened economic uncertainty globally. We remain focused on
executing the strategy we outlined last June, while also being alert to risks in the global economy.”
Financial performance (vs. 1Q18)
• Reported profit after tax up 31% to $4.9bn.
• Reported revenue up 5%. Adjusted revenue up 9%, supported by positive market impacts and disposal gains.
• Reported operating expenses down 12%. Adjusted operating expenses up 3.2% in 1Q19, which has slowed from 5.6%
at FY18 (compared with FY17). Returned to positive adjusted jaws of 6.0%, supported by favourable markets-related
movements and disposal gains in Latin America.
• Earnings per share of 21 cents, up 40%. Return on tangible equity (annualised) up 220bps to 10.6%.
• Common equity tier 1 (‘CET1’) ratio up 30bps from 31 December 2018 to 14.3%, including a 7bps adverse impact of IFRS 16.
We are committed to the discipline of scrip neutralisation and will announce our decision on 2019 share buybacks at the half-year.
Strategic progress
• Continued growth momentum in RBWM and CMB. Adjusted revenue up 10% in RBWM and 11% in CMB, compared with 1Q18.
Strong adjusted revenue performances in Retail Banking (up 11%) and Global Liquidity and Cash Management (up 17%).
• Strong growth in Asia, despite a softer rate and growth environment. Reported revenue up 7% compared with 1Q18; reported
lending growth of $11bn or 2% compared with 4Q18.
• Investments of $1.0bn in 1Q19, up 15% compared with 1Q18, on near- and medium-term initiatives to grow the business and
enhance our digital capabilities.
• Revenue growth from our international network, with transaction banking revenue up 9% compared with 1Q18.
• US turnaround progressing, but this remains our most challenging strategic priority. In 1Q19, we increased retail customer
numbers and continued to capitalise on our international network, despite the softening rate environment.

Dividend $0.10 for q1.

viewtopic.php?f=94&t=16328#p219119

[Dod101]

Thanks Ian. Sounds good to me and certainly going in the right direction.

Dod

[idpickering]

Thanks Ian. Sounds good to me and certainly going in the right direction.

Dod

You're welcome Dod. The sp jumped 2.2% on Hong Kong market on this release. I'm up to a 'full holding, so won't be buying more of these for a while.

Ian.

[idpickering]

HSBC CFO Ewen Stevenson on Bloomberg TV re these results;

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2 ... year-video

Ian.

[OLTB]

Morning all

These HSBC profits are great, but I am struggling to understand why this hasn’t resulted in a small increase in dividends. Any comments welcomed!

Cheers, OLTB.

[idpickering]

Morning all

These HSBC profits are great, but I am struggling to understand why this hasn’t resulted in a small increase in dividends. Any comments welcomed!

Cheers, OLTB.

They are striving to reduce costs, maybe they perversely regard dividends as such?

Ian.

[OLTB]

Morning all

These HSBC profits are great, but I am struggling to understand why this hasn’t resulted in a small increase in dividends. Any comments welcomed!

Cheers, OLTB.

They are striving to reduce costs, maybe they perversely regard dividends as such?

Ian.

Thanks Ian - hopefully the increase will start soon...

Cheers, OLTB.

[Dod101]

Morning all

These HSBC profits are great, but I am struggling to understand why this hasn’t resulted in a small increase in dividends. Any comments welcomed!

They told us some time ago that there would be no increase in the dividends for 2019 and I suspect when a dividend increase does come it will be in the final for the year not the three interims.

Dod

[pyad]

They told us some time ago that there would be no increase in the dividends for 2019 and I suspect when a dividend increase does come it will be in the final for the year not the three interims.

Dod

That's not exactly what they said in their most recent comment on the subject. The actual wording in the 2018 annual accounts stated that

We plan to sustain the annual dividend in respect of the year at its current level for the foreseeable future.

which is not too precise but could easily mean that the continuing 51¢ freeze goes further than just 2019.

[Dod101]

Indeed. I was simply quoting their Chairman at the 2018 AGM (that is the one discussing the 2017 Accounts) when he said that they would hold the dividend for 2018 and 2019. There was no expectation of an increase for 2020 being promoted but it was left open.

Dod

[PinkDalek]

The fuller wording in the HSBC Holdings plc Annual Report and Accounts 2018 at page 17 was:

Dividends

We plan to sustain the annual dividend in respect of the year at its current level for the foreseeable future. Growing our dividend will depend on the overall profitability of the Group, delivering further release of less efficiently deployed capital and meeting regulatory capital requirements in a timely manner.

and later

Interim dividends for 2019

The Board has adopted a policy of paying quarterly interim dividends on ordinary shares. Under this policy it is intended to have a pattern of three equal interim dividends with a variable fourth interim dividend.


The latter is repeated in the HSBC Holdings plc Earnings Release 1Q19.

So we can all wait for fourth interim dividend detail with abated breath but, in the meantime, presumably we'll see Q2 and Q3 Topics appearing where the same points will no doubt be made.

Source https://www.hsbc.com/investors/results- ... =1&take=20

[pyad]

The fuller wording in the HSBC Holdings plc Annual Report and Accounts 2018 at page 17 was:

Dividends

We plan to sustain the annual dividend in respect of the year at its current level for the foreseeable future. Growing our dividend will depend on the overall profitability of the Group, delivering further release of less efficiently deployed capital and meeting regulatory capital requirements in a timely manner.

I was aware of that but the additional bit you've bolded was not relevant so I omitted it. The question was whether 2019 is likely to be the final year of the freeze and my post was to show that there is no real indication of it. The stuff about divs depending on profits etc. is the sort of generalisation that many companies say and does not enlighten us as to when div increases may be resumed.

and later

Interim dividends for 2019

The Board has adopted a policy of paying quarterly interim dividends on ordinary shares. Under this policy it is intended to have a pattern of three equal interim dividends with a variable fourth interim dividend.


The latter is repeated in the HSBC Holdings plc Earnings Release 1Q19.

So we can all wait for fourth interim dividend detail with abated breath but, in the meantime, presumably we'll see Q2 and Q3 Topics appearing where the same points will no doubt be made.

Source https://www.hsbc.com/investors/results- ... =1&take=20

The three equal divs with Q4 to be decided on the results has been their pattern for many years, nothing new there.

[PinkDalek]

I never said any of that was anything new. I merely provided the detail.

[Dod101]

Why does pyad and occasionally others behave as though they have a point prove?

Dod

Moderator Message:
Questioning a poster's motivations is not a practical matter concerning the running of an HYP. Chris

[Dod101]

Morning all

These HSBC profits are great, but I am struggling to understand why this hasn’t resulted in a small increase in dividends. Any comments welcomed!

They told us some time ago that there would be no increase in the dividends for 2019 and I suspect when a dividend increase does come it will be in the final for the year not the three interims.

Dod

I can see how the pedant might misconstrue my comment. I did not mean that an increase in the dividend would come in the final for 2019, only that if there were to be an increase in the dividend it would most likely come in the final dividend and not in the first (or any other) interim because that would commit them to following up the increase with the subsequent interims.

It is though, I would have thought, hardly worth commenting on.

Dod

[csearle]

Moderator Message:
A few off-topic posts regarding my handling of a repoted post have been removed. - Chris

[Arborbridge]

Moderator Message:
A few off-topic posts regarding my handling of a reported post have been removed. - Chris

Well, that says it all, doesn't, about how this board is "progressing". Poor old Ian isn't allowed to comment on his post being highjacked, and no one else is permitted to have any sort of conversation which is even slightly tangential.

Rules, rules, rules - let's just put on a straightjacket and produce a dead, boring unattractive environment where no one dares to say anything remotely controversial. We're all the worse of because of it.

I really do not see why this site has been suppressed in this way - and it only started within the past year - for it will be the death of it. Maybe already has been - it's a Saturday, and there are hardly any contributions. A day when in former times there would have been a few threads with jolly discussions running on them.


Arb.

[Walrus]

Moderator Message:
A few off-topic posts regarding my handling of a reported post have been removed. - Chris

Well, that says it all, doesn't, about how this board is "progressing". Poor old Ian isn't allowed to comment on his post being highjacked, and no one else is permitted to have any sort of conversation which is even slightly tangential.

Rules, rules, rules - let's just put on a straightjacket and produce a dead, boring unattractive environment where no one dares to say anything remotely controversial. We're all the worse of because of it.

I really do not see why this site has been suppressed in this way - and it only started within the past year - for it will be the death of it. Maybe already has been - it's a Saturday, and there are hardly any contributions. A day when in former times there would have been a few threads with jolly discussions running on them.


Arb.

Im convinced something unofficially changed 6 months ago on this site around how things are moderated. Everytime I make this suggestion my post gets deleted, so I will leave it at that as it's a waste of my time. Maybe we just need a board where topics can meander and not just be cut off when conversation gets interesting.

[csearle]

Well, that says it all, doesn't, about how this board is "progressing". Poor old Ian isn't allowed to comment on his post being hijacked, and no one else is permitted to have any sort of conversation which is even slightly tangential..

Poor old Ian's post was totally off-topic, as were the rest. Slightly tangential discussion would likely not be reported and certainly wouldn't be deleted.

Rules, rules, rules - let's just put on a straightjacket and produce a dead, boring unattractive environment where no one dares to say anything remotely controversial. We're all the worse of because of it.

Believe it or not this isn't the board for discussing this, although there is talk of allowing discussion of a board's scope on the board itself so long as it is conducted in threads clearly dedicated to this purpose. Hopefully this will be implemented at some stage.

Im convinced something unofficially changed 6 months ago on this site around how things are moderated. Everytime I make this suggestion my post gets deleted, so I will leave it at that as it's a waste of my time. Maybe we just need a board where topics can meander and not just be cut off when conversation gets interesting.

It would have been deleted because discussion of moderation is not allowed on the boards. [Unnecessarily rude bit deleted. - Chris]

There are plenty of boards where meandering is allowed, take a look around.

Topics are rarely deleted. The posts that were deleted were not "interesting" to an HYPer. They were off-topic discussion of moderation.

Regards,
Chris
PS I'm reporting my own post here for someone else to deal with because it too is off topic and I anticipate it being deleted.

Moderator Message:
I'm going to let this post stand. It is clear that some ill-judged posting has given arise to considerable frustration and annoyance, not least to the original poster, Ian Pickering. Please do not devalue his hard work and effort any further by posting off-topic content. -- MDW1954

[Walrus]

Well, that says it all, doesn't, about how this board is "progressing". Poor old Ian isn't allowed to comment on his post being hijacked, and no one else is permitted to have any sort of conversation which is even slightly tangential..

Poor old Ian's post was totally off-topic, as were the rest. Slightly tangential discussion would likely not be reported and certainly wouldn't be deleted.

Rules, rules, rules - let's just put on a straightjacket and produce a dead, boring unattractive environment where no one dares to say anything remotely controversial. We're all the worse of because of it.

Believe it or not this isn't the board for discussing this, although there is talk of allowing discussion of a board's scope on the board itself so long as it is conducted in threads clearly dedicated to this purpose. Hopefully this will be implemented at some stage.

Im convinced something unofficially changed 6 months ago on this site around how things are moderated. Everytime I make this suggestion my post gets deleted, so I will leave it at that as it's a waste of my time. Maybe we just need a board where topics can meander and not just be cut off when conversation gets interesting.

It would have been deleted because discussion of moderation is not allowed on the boards. [Unnecessarily rude bit deleted. - Chris]

There are plenty of boards where meandering is allowed, take a look around.

Topics are rarely deleted. The posts that were deleted were not "interesting" to an HYPer. They were off-topic discussion of moderation.

Regards,
Chris
PS I'm reporting my own post here for someone else to deal with because it too is off topic and I anticipate it being deleted.

I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I much prefer this to the deletions with no context. I don't understand the need for you to report your own post, it just highlights how the site is moving to being rather nonsensical.

Moderator Message:
No further discussion of moderation, please. -- MDW1954