SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC on Tuesday reported better-than-expected quarterly profit for the October-December period jumping 92% as rising interest rates boosted its net income.
The bank has said it intends to pay a special dividend of $0.21 per share using the funds it is to raise this year with the sale of its Canadian operations for $10 billion ($9.38 billion). euro).
Despite these results, the HSBC title fell by 1.2% at 09:31 GMT on the London Stock Exchange, analysts deeming the forecasts moderate in a context of rising rates.
The bank said it expects net interest income to reach at least $36 billion in 2023, less than the $38 billion targeted by analysts.
The cautiousness of these forecasts is partly linked to pressure from competitors to raise the deposit rate, chief executive Noel Quinn told Reuters.
“We are comfortable with the consensus around 37 billion dollars, we are not looking to move it,” added Noel Quinn.
In the fourth quarter, HSBC posted pretax profit of $5.2 billion, up from $2.7 billion a year earlier. This is an amount above the expectations of analysts polled by the bank, who on average expected a pretax profit of $ 4.96 billion.
HSBC said expected credit losses rose to $3.6 billion, higher than analysts’ estimate of $3.2 billion, due to pressure from rising inflation on borrowers. and ongoing problems in the Chinese real estate market.
HSBC’s cautious outlook echoes that of British rival NatWest, which warned last week that profits from rising interest rates may have peaked.
(Report Anshuman Daga and Lawrence White; Jean Terzian and Augustin Turpin, editing by Kate Entringer)
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