Statement re. Press Comment

10 January 2013

STATEMENT RE PRESS SPECULATION

This announcement is made at the request of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

HSBC Holdings plc ("HSBC") notes the recent publication of several press articles regarding the proposed sale of its shareholding in Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. to indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries of Charoen Pokphand Group Company Limited (the "Transaction"), which was the subject of an announcement by HSBC on 5 December 2012.

Having made such enquiry with respect to the Transaction as is reasonable in the circumstances, HSBC confirms that it is not aware of any information which must be announced to avoid a false market in HSBC's securities or of any inside information that needs to be disclosed under Part XIVA of the Securities and Futures Ordinance.

HSBC further reaffirms that, on the basis of this enquiry, the information contained in the announcement of 5 December 2012 remains accurate.

This announcement is made by the order of HSBC. HSBC's Board of Directors collectively and individually accepts responsibility for the accuracy of this announcement.

By Order of the Board

R G Barber

Group Company Secretary

The Board of Directors of HSBC Holdings plc as at the date of this announcement is:

D J Flint, S T Gulliver, S A Catz†, L M L Cha†, M K T Cheung†, J D Coombe†, J Faber†,R A Fairhead†, R Fassbind†, J W J Hughes-Hallett†, W S H Laidlaw†, J P Lipsky†, J R Lomax†,I J Mackay, Sir Simon Robertson† and J L Thornton†.

† Independent non-executive Director

Note to editors:

HSBC Holdings plc

HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. The Group serves customers worldwide from around 6,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, North and Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. With assets of US$2,721bn at 30 September 2012, the HSBC Group is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organisations.