The HSBC Board has announced that the Group's capital strength, has given the Board the confidence to approve an unchanged dividend of $0.51 for 2019.
Other financial highlights include:
• Reported profit attributable to ordinary shareholders down 53% to $6.0bn, materially impacted by a goodwill impairment of $7.3bn. Reported profit before tax down 33% to $13.3bn. Reported revenue up 4% and reported operating expenses up 22% due to a goodwill impairment of $7.3bn.
• Goodwill impairment of $7.3bn, primarily $4.0bn related to Global Banking and Markets ('GB&M') and $2.5bn in Commercial Banking ('CMB') in Europe. This reflected lower long-term economic growth rate assumptions, and additionally for GB&M, the planned reshaping of the business.
• Adjusted revenue up 5.9% to $55.4bn and adjusted profit before tax up 5% to $22.2bn, reflecting good revenue growth in Retail Banking and Wealth Management ('RBWM'), Global Private Banking ('GPB') and CMB, together with improved cost control.
• Adjusted revenue in Asia up 7% to $30.5bn and adjusted profit before tax up 6% to $18.6bn. Within this, there was a resilient performance by Hong Kong, with adjusted profit before tax up 5% to $12.1bn.
• Adjusted expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges ('ECL') up $1.1bn to $2.8bn from higher charges in CMB and RBWM.
• Positive adjusted jaws of 3.1%, reflecting improving cost discipline. Adjusted operating expense growth of 2.8%, well below the growth rate in 2018 (compared with 2017).
• Return on average tangible equity ('RoTE') down 20 basis points ('bps') to 8.4%, supported by a resilient Hong Kong performance.
• Earnings per share of $0.30, including a $0.36 per share impact of the goodwill impairment.
• They are continuing to monitor the recent coronavirus outbreak, which is causing economic disruption in Hong Kong and mainland China and may impact performance in 2020.
