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Rebel HSBC shareholders win support from Hong Kong’s largest labour union in fight to reinstate dividends
- Federation of Trade Unions, with 420,000 members, calls on government to intervene on behalf of investors
- Shareholders close in on 5 per cent threshold for calling a meeting
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Rebel HSBC shareholders in Hong Kong won reinforcements on Wednesday from Hong Kong’s largest labour union who called on the government to safeguard the interests of local investors.
The ranks of angry shareholders demanding that HSBC revoke its decision to scrap dividend payments are swelling. They need to recruit 5 per cent of the shareholder base to call for an extraordinary general meeting.
One group, which calls itself the HSBC Shareholders Alliance, had collected over 5,000 shareholders as of Wednesday, almost 3 per cent of HSBC’s shareholder base, according to a spokeswoman.
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The rebellion erupted after HSBC and Standard Chartered suspended dividends and share buy-backs on April 1 at the request of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), an arm of the Bank of England and their chief regulator. The PRA threatened to use its statutory powers if the UK's biggest banks, including HSBC, did not comply.
Representatives of Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, the largest labour group in Hong Kong with 420,000 members, gave a letter to Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po urging him to intervene on behalf of investors.
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