HSBC cost cutting bears fruit, but pretax profit falls 86% on once-off items
Hong Kong — HSBC shares rallied Monday in a positive response to quarterly profit results after the British banking group underwent radical cost cutting.In the September quarter its adjusted pretax profit — which strips out once-off items and unfavourable currency movements — rose 7% from a year ago to $5.59bn, beating analysts’ expectations.Reported pretax profit, however, plunged 86% from a year ago to $843m. That figure included the impact of the sale of the bank’s Brazil business, which set the lender back $1.7bn.HSBC global CE Stuart Gulliver said. "Reported profits were down, but adjusted profits were higher than (those of) last year’s third quarter in all four global businesses and four out of five regions."Last year, HSBC announced a radical overhaul to cut yearly costs by $5bn in two years by shedding 50,000 jobs worldwide, exiting unprofitable businesses and focusing more on Asia.Gulliver said the bank achieved $2.8bn in annualised savings so far and was on track for its e...
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