Corrected: HSBC rewards its top 15 managers with HK$186 million in stock options

The bonus season has arrived at Britain’s largest bank, HSBC. Despite posting the worst return to shareholders since the global financial crisis, many more millionaires were made at the bank, with HSBC paying out some HK$186 million worth of stock options to its 15 most senior managers, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Over the past week since HSBC’s result announcement, three brokerages including Bernstein have downgraded HSBC’s shares, rating them either “underperform” or “sell”.

As part of the awards, the bank issued HK$47.5 million worth of non-deferred shares to the senior executives, a sizeable chunk of that withheld for tax purposes.

Most shares granted to the executives must be held for at least six months. Some of the shares can only be sold when the holder ends their employment with the bank.

An HSBC spokesman in Hong Kong contacted by the South China Morning Post declined to comment.

The awardees include some of the most senior managers of the business units that group chief Stuart Gulliver is counting on to deliver profits.

HSBC has struggled in recent years, delivering a return on equity at below the cost of capital in each of the past five years.