HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank by market value, may cut about 1,000 jobs in the UK, a person familiar with the situation said.
The jobs will be eliminated in processing and operations, and some administration sites may be closed, said the person, who declined to be identified because the information is confidential.
London-based HSBC employs about 58,000 people in the UK and 330,000 worldwide.
TOUGH YEAR
“HSBC, like all banks, must be thinking it’s going to be a tough year and they are looking to make savings,” said Leigh Goodwin, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Ltd in London who has an “underperform” rating on the stock.
“The bank has always been cost conscious,” the analyst said yesterday.
HSBC is raising £12.5 billion (US$18.4 billion) in the UK’s biggest rights offering to boost its capital and fund expansion in emerging markets.
ELIMINATIONS
The company eliminated about 500 jobs in the UK in November and 1,100 positions at its global banking and markets unit in September.
Barclays Plc, the UK’s third-largest bank, has shed more than 4,500 jobs this year.
An HSBC spokesman declined to comment, saying the bank would never discuss job cuts without first discussing the matter with employees.
STOCKS
The stock fell 3.3 percent to HK$44.3 as of 12:04pm yesterday in Hong Kong, after dropping as much as 5 percent.
The shares have lost 35 percent of their value this year, compared with a 9.2 percent drop in the MSCI AC Asia Financials Index.
NO INJECTION
HSBC, unlike rivals Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc, hasn’t needed a capital injection from the government and its share offering is fully underwritten.
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