HSBC to Issue Up to $7 Billion in Debt; Posts 4Q Pretax Profit

    By Chester Yung 
 

Global bank HSBC Holdings PLC (0005.HK) said it planned an additional Tier 1 capital issuance of $5 billion to $7 billion in the first half of 2018.

HSBC also said it would make share repurchases "as and when appropriate."

On Tuesday, the Asia-focused lender said it swung to a fourth-quarter pretax profit of $2.3 billion from a year-earlier pretax loss of $3.45 billion. It declared a total dividend of 51 cents a share for 2017.

The bank said its 2017 net profit surged to $9.68 billion from $1.30 billion a year earlier, in part thanks to higher revenue from Asia. Full-year revenue rose to $51.45 billion from $47.97 billion.

Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver described the earnings as "good results," although as the bank's 2017 pretax profit of $17.17 billion missed expectations for $19.55 billion, based on a poll of 20 analysts conducted by FactSet.

HSBC's Hong Kong-listed shares rose 0.8% to HK$84.20 ($10.76) at midday before the bank released results.

Last year, the bank said it would buy back an additional $1.0 billion worth of shares, bringing the program's total size to $3.5 billion since the second half of 2016.

The lender has undergone a major restructuring since 2011, exiting from most of Latin America and placing more focus on Asia. It faces potential hurdles from the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union. The U.K. and Hong Kong are the bank's two largest markets.

Write to Chester Yung at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 20, 2018 00:20 ET (05:20 GMT)

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