HSBC’s 2013 Profit Misses Estimates on Cost Reductions
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HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank, posted full-year profit that missed analyst estimates as a cost-cutting drive fell short of targets and revenue shrank. The stock slumped in Hong Kong and London.
Pretax profit for 2013 rose 9 percent to $22.6 billion from $20.7 billion in the year-earlier period, the London-based bank said in a statement yesterday. That was lower than the $24.6 billion median estimate of 30 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. HSBC’s Hang Seng Bank Ltd. unit in Hong Kong posted record earnings for the year, boosted by an accounting gain.