(Hong Kong) – Global banking giant is tipped to report a better than 20 percent rise in 2002 profit when it announces its results next Monday.The Hong Kong and London listed bank is tipped to post a net rise of 21.6 percent to HK$51.32 billion (US$6.57 billion), up from HK$42.21 billion last year.
Although the result is expected to include US$800 million of charges from the amortisation of recent acquisitions, such as Republic New York and CCF in France, the result is expected to be driven by a lowering of bad debt provisions.
HSBC’s 2001 result included US$3.21 billion in provisions, more than half for bad debts.