HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn has denied that Ping An’s campaign to break up the bank is directed from Beijing and said the Chinese insurer’s demands are not backed by other large shareholders or its customers.
Ping An, the lender’s largest investor with almost a tenth of the stock, has called for HSBC to spin off its Asian business, citing years of poor performance, persistently high costs and a falling share price. It has also argued the bank can no longer effectively operate straddling east and west in an era of tense US-China geopolitics.
Given HSBC’s dominant position in Hong Kong, where it was founded in 1865, there has been persistent speculation that Ping An’s drive to break up the bank is being pushed by the government in Beijing, which is trying to increase its control over the city’s financial system.