23rd Feb 2015 08:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - HSBC Holdings PLC Monday reported a 17% drop in annual pretax profit, citing lower disposals from business disposals, as well as numerous fines, settlements, and the the costs of provisions for customer compensation in the UK.
In a statement, the banking giant said it made a USD18.68 billion pretax profit in 2014, compared with USD22.57 billion in 2013. According to consensus estimates compiled by the company, financial analysts had expected HSBC to report a pretax profit of USD20.95 billion.
On an adjusted basis, which excludes the year-on-year effects of foreign currency translation and "significant" items, pretax profit was down to USD22.83 billion from USD22.98 billion.
Still, HSBC increased its dividend per share to USD0.50 from USD0.49.
Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said that 2014 was a challenging year in which the bank's efforts to improve its performance were carried out against a backdrop of a higher operating cost base.
"Profits disappointed, although a tough fourth quarter masked some of the progress made over the preceding three quarters. Many of the challenging aspects of the fourth quarter results were common to the industry as a whole. In spite of this, there were a number of encouraging signs, particularly in commercial banking, payments and cash management and renminbi products and services. We were also able to continue to grow the dividend," Gulliver said.
HSBC shares were down 3.2% at 586.20 pence on Monday shortly after the results.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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