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Covid-19: HSBC / SC - Dividends & Results

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  1. #21

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    WAS an investment case for generations. For a while, it was a generational stock that HK families owned, kept and passed on. Still is to a large extent - an emotional issue for many older people. I've gotten shocked and judgy looks / opinions from many uncles when I say "enough is enough with these dividend losers", I'd rather take far less dividends and put money into lower div indexes/growth SPY etc (as an example).

    Since then ...

  2. #22

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    NONE in my books.

    Like I said, there are far better investment cases right now to put any cash into than HSBC. But one needs to decide if you want to piss off some people (see above post about the emotional thing) or take the crap and come out better in a year or two.

  3. #23

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    Detailed article about HSBC's dividend history, focusing specifically on Hong Kong:

    https://seekingalpha.com/article/433...rprised-no-one


  4. #24

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    From that article ... I call BS on the "no one was surprised" tone and raise that with a hindsight is 20/20.

    The F'ing board had a lot more information that the analyst who wrote that article. I'm sure they were surprised about being asked to review an already declared dividend, right after they declared that there would be no change in their dividend policy. But then.. HSBC is HSBC...

    I don't have an ounce of energy to talk to people I know within that bank about this, but I suspect there is a lot more going on in the background.

    Without more of a margin of safety around its dividend, it should have surprised no one that the dividend was cut as the coronavirus panic deepened. Rather, one should ask why they still announced the full $0.21 on February 18th, even when they should have known more about the virus's impact on their China loan portfolio than almost any other non-mainland Chinese bank.

  5. #25

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    I am not sure why anyone will be surprised.. by the decision/action/article of the bank or the regulator or the reporter..

    Banks are operated this way... leverage to the extreme and try to squeeze as much of that cut out as possible ... To the management everyday is always a sunny day.. they are going to ignore that potential black swan risk in their book and treat like nothing ever happen..

    The regulator will decide to do anything and everything when they want it.. they wouldn't care if you have declared your dividend or you have not..

    And for the reporter, they write things in hindsight..

    Anyway @shri i am sure i have spoken to you about this.. buying bank shares are a no-no to me these days. The only shares i might buy are probably the banks in Singapore where, if at stressful pricing, i would take the bet. The global banks are so so so so so leveraged any wrong step or wrong event will set the bank value back by half.

    Buy the boring sectors.. or the tech if you prefer the volatility... leave the bank shares to the local HKers that still think working for hsbc is glamorous.

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  6. #26

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    Anyway @shri i am sure i have spoken to you about this.. buying bank shares are a no-no to me these days. The only shares i might buy are probably the banks in Singapore where, if at stressful pricing, i would take the bet. The global banks are so so so so so leveraged any wrong step or wrong event will set the bank value back by half.
    I agree with you on this.

    Buy the boring sectors.. or the tech if you prefer the volatility... leave the bank shares to the local HKers that still think working for hsbc is glamorous.
    Bit more nuanced than that ... it is after all considered "Hong Kong Bank" by many older generations.

  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    Bit more nuanced than that ... it is after all considered "Hong Kong Bank" by many older generations.
    Typically for us in the industry or in related industry, we still call it hk bank when we speak of it.. e.g. we got a quote from hk bank... and its generally understood.

    yesterday i was just having lunch with a colleague of mine that's totally repeating what you said... guys that have taken out their retirement funds (millions) and dumped them all into HSBC because of the 6% yield..
    I feel sad for these guys..
    jrkob, shri, tf19 and 1 others like this.

  8. #28

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    To me this whole debacle reeks of some British gentlemen club handshake agreement under a cloud of heavy cigar smoke between HM BoE guys with the top 5 UK bank CEOs so the unilateral dividend cut doesn’t look like collusion by stating to “recommend” a dividend suspension. What a load of bull to first announce the dividend then wait till shareholders load up before the ex dividend and then scrapping it. Let’s not forget in case of HSBC that was the final dividend for 2019 which had nothing to do with Covid 19. It’s basically covering up their utter incompetence by using covid as an excuse. Other companies come to mind such as Boeing that use the same tactics of covid deflection to distract from their serious management problems.


  9. #29

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    At this point...close to none, I cant see just where the growth will actually come from with HSBS. If it has relied on the PRD for growth then I can see some very large issues namely in the credit quality of customers. One very large issues is that of not incentivising its MRT, how will people who job is it to generate revenue be actually concerned with generating revenue? Without this the bank is in real trouble, and how to keep them. It really needs to start laying off people and not suspending its restructure but accelerating it.


  10. #30

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    I don't own shares of HSBC but I think there's something morally wrong with what the Bank of England is doing to HSBC's dividend.

    The Bank of England is effectively directing HSBC's cash literally away from shareholders to UK businesses. The BoE does not have a controlling stake in HSBC. HSBC, to my knowledge, has also not asked for a bailout or handout from the UK government.

    If the idea is to have HSBC lend more to small businesses in the UK, why not follow the US fed and temporarily remove reserve ratios or whatever it is that constrains bank capital? What am I missing here?

    A lot of retail shareholders in Hong Kong still depend on the dividend from HSBC. In the recent past there was an inspirational article (that I read on GeoExpat) about a taxi driver who saved money to purchase HSBC shares and live off of the income. Now what can he do? The share price is low so selling would be a terrible idea but he has lost his monthly income. Getting a part-time job in this environment is also unlikely.

    traineeinvestor likes this.

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