Ping An supports ‘any proposal’ to improve HSBC as the bank’s No. 1 shareholder puts its weight behind break-up call for the first time

Ping An Insurance, the single-largest shareholder in HSBC, takes its stake in HSBC ‘very seriously,’ co-CEO Tan says in interview

HSBC’s top management has resisted calls to break up its Asian business, citing costs and risks

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Ping An Insurance’s sign on its building in Beijing. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:46am, 24 Aug 2022Updated: 5:55pm, 24 Aug 2022

Ping An Insurance (Group), China’s most valuable insurer, has openly put its weight behind the call to break up HSBC, saying it will support any proposal to improve the performance of one of the world’s largest banks and generate long-term value.

“HSBC is one of the many investments we make from our insurance policyholder funds,” the Shenzhen-based insurer’s co-CEO Jessica Tan Sin-yin said during an interview with the South China Morning Post. “We therefore take every individual investment seriously because these are all policyholder funds to get good shareholder returns.”

Ping An has generated 5.7 per cent returns on average for the long-term policy holders with 4.2 trillion yuan (US$614 billion) in aggregate policyholder funds, and “we take the investment very seriously,” she reiterated.

Tan’s comments are the first by HSBC’s second-largest shareholder – with an 8.2 per cent stake in the London-based bank – since a proxy campaign emerged in April to reorganise the century-old lender that earns the bulk of its revenue in Asia. Bank executives pushed back against the call to split its global operations citing costs and risks, doubling down instead on its pivot to Asia by investing more in its biggest market, Hong Kong.

Jessica Tan Sin-yin, Deputy Chief Executive of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, photographed during an interview at the JW Marriott Hotel in Admiralty on 22 August 2018. Photo: Jonathan Wong

In Toto Consulting, a Hong Kong-based due diligence advisory firm, issued a report earlier this month that listed three possible options for revamp. Ping An has declined to confirm or deny that it commissioned the report.