(21 August 2024 – South Africa) HSBC is reportedly considering spinning-off its South African operations in order to redouble its investment into core Asian markets.
Bloomberg and Reuters reports that African, Chinese and United Arab Emirates (UAE) based bidders have displayed interest for London headquartered HSBC’s South African unit. No deal is finalised or guaranteed, and the details of any potential agreements are still under review.
HSBC’s operations in South Africa include providing banking services to corporate and wholesale clients as well as a representative office for the Private Bank. HSBC has held a presence in South Africa since 1995 and currently serves mainly large companies operating on the continent. In 2023 the group agreed to sell-off its retail and business banking units in Mauritius to Absa Group.
“HSBC has recently been divesting a number of its global operations, including the recent sale of its French retail banking business to Crédit Commercial de France (CCF) in January and the US$550 million sale of its Argentine banking operations to Grupo Financiero Galicia in April” commented Fintech Futures reporter Cameron Emanuel-Burns.
A spokesperson for HSBC declined to comment, citing a company policy not to comment on market speculation.