Letters | Why HSBC’s ‘pivot’ to Asia rings false
- Readers discuss HSBC’s inability to forge a new strategy for growth, the UK’s interest in Hong Kong and Taiwan, why Hong Kong must bring back TikTok, and how anti-touting measures at government sports venues are discriminatory
HSBC’s directors constantly refer to the group’s “pivot” to Asia as a strategic novelty, overlooking the fact that Asia has been at the core of HSBC since 1865. And since the failed bid to become “the world’s local bank” under John Bond’s leadership, the opportunity for growth has been limited by HSBC’s dominant position in the Hong Kong market and its role as a colonial-era bank in China.
In these circumstances, the inability of the HSBC board to forge a new strategy for growth and its reliance on platitudes about its commitment to Asia have made inevitable – and welcome to many other shareholders – the pressure for radical change from the more dynamic Ping An.
Ping An’s recent comment that they “will support any suggestions to improve the value of HSBC” demonstrates their commitment to a new strategy and a willingness to work with the board.
However, the reaction from HSBC has been to hire as their advisers Goldman Sachs and Robey Warshaw, and their emerging strategy has so far focused exclusively on the difficulties and costs of breaking up the group.