HSBC risks losing advantage with year-long delay in Chinese banking push

REUTERS: HSBC’s ambitions to establish an investment banking franchise in China have hit a roadblock, with the bank still waiting for approval for its partnership with a state-owned fund more than a year after it announced the venture.
The partnership is a key part of the bank’s ambition to grow annual profits in the fast-growing southern region of China from US $100 million (£81.50 million) to $1 billion in the medium term, and as growth in China slows, HSBC has delayed other expansion plans it said would help achieve that goal.
HSBC announced on Nov. 2, 2015 the proposed venture with Shenzhen Qianhai Financial Holdings Co Ltd, with HSBC set to own a majority 51 percent stake while foreign peers are currently capped at a maximum of 49 percent in Chinese partnerships.
The bank is expected to get the go-ahead for the venture eventually, sources familiar with the matter said, but the delay has reduced the advantage HSBC could have stolen over rivals as China relaxes rules on foreign players in its markets.
A spokesman for HSBC in Hong Kong said the bank continues to seek the required approval, declining to comment on the timing.
The proposed HSBC-Qianhai firm would be able to trade as well as underwrite stocks and bonds for Chinese firms, unlike foreign rivals who operate under more restrictions.
“HSBC a year ago was saying ‘here we go’, it was all guns blazing but we are still waiting...,” said a Hong-Kong based consultant who works with the bank. HSBC did not publicly set out a timeline for when it expected to receive the go-ahead but the process is taking longer than analysts expected.
Chirantan Barua of Bernstein research wrote in April last year that he expected approval by the July-September quarter.
The HSBC joint venture has had the longest wait of any pending Sino-foreign securities joint venture, and two such ventures have received approval since HSBC submitted its application, according to data compiled by Hong Kong consultancy firm Quinlan & Associates.