Higher profits, lower bonuses at HSBC, analysts estimate

Global banking group HSBC may post its highest pre-tax profit since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, but top management will still face a cut to bonuses owing to a record-high US$1.9 billion fine paid to settle a US investigation into money-laundering last year.

Analysts' estimates of HSBC's pre-tax profit for last year shows an average forecast of US$23.3 billion, up 6.3 per cent from a year earlier and the highest since 2008. That will translate into earnings per share of 88.4 US cents.

But not all analysts are positive.

While Goldman Sachs expects HSBC to report a net profit of US$17.2 billion for last year, up 6.4 per cent from a year earlier, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, and Citi, estimate net profit will be down between 4.6 per cent and 10.9 per cent.

Britain's The Sunday Telegraph newspaper yesterday reported that HSBC will post a pre-tax profit of US$23.4 billion for 2012, up 6.8 per cent from 2011.

After selling several international operations, including its general insurance businesses in Hong Kong and Singapore, and a stake in China insurer Ping An, the group had entered the final year of a turnover plan set in 2011, it said.