Established 1961 TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019 Turkish Airlines and LOT Polish NBK-Bahrain reportsBusiness net profits Mutawa Alkazi: New BAIC BJ40 12Airlines expand codeshare network 13 of KD 48.283 million for H1 2019 14 Plus now available in Kuwait LONDON: In this file photo, the HSBC UK headquarters are seen at the Canary Wharf financial district of London. —AFP HSBC axes CEO Flint in shock move Bank unveils further share buyback of up to $1bn, sheds 4,000 jobs HONG KONG/LONDON: HSBC ousted John Flint as for listing insurer AIA and then more than doubling its lion in severance costs and the reductions will be cash in on booming domestic chief executive after just 18 months in a shock move the market value. Flint, 51, was widely seen as a safe pair of biased towards senior managers. HSBC executives at stock markets. Revenues in chairman of Europe’s biggest bank said was needed to hands offering a ‘more of the same’ strategy at HSBC. the time of his appointment saw Flint as a safe pair of HSBC’s global banking and speed up progress on priority areas such as the turn- HSBC, which makes more than 80 percent of its hands and a natural successor to mentor and previous markets division fell by 3 per- around of its US business. profit in Asia, said that its global commercial banking CEO Stuart Gulliver. Outlining his strategy in June last cent in the first half compared The CEO’s exit was a result of differences of opinion unit head Noel Quinn will be interim chief executive. year, Flint set out plans to invest $15-$17 billion in the with the same period last year. with chairman Mark Tucker over Flint’s more tentative Shares in HSBC, which fell nearly 14 percent during next three years in areas including technology. approach to cutting expenses and setting revenue tar- Flint’s tenure, were down 1.7 percent in London at 1111 “We have been uninspired by the “business as Revenue risk gets for senior managers to boost profit growth, a per- GMT, even though it reported a 16 percent rise in profit usual” strategy,” analyst Ed Firth at broker KBW HSBC’s pretax profit for son familiar with the matter said. HSBC disclosed the and a revealed a share buyback of up to $1 billion. said. “We suspect that any new CEO is still more like- the first six months of 2019 departure of Flint, 51, alongside its half-year results Flint, who previously ran London-headquartered ly to be internal, but will need a more dynamic rose to $12.41 billion from yesterday as it forecast a gloomier outlook for its busi- HSBC’s retail and wealth management business, was approach to improving underperforming areas of the $10.71 billion in the same John Flint ness, with an escalation of a trade war between China chosen as CEO in February 2018 in the first major deci- business,” he said. period a year earlier, helped and the United States, an easing monetary policy cycle, sion by Tucker, who told Reuters: by a surge in retail banking unrest in its key Hong Kong market and Brexit. “It’s the right time for change, and doing it clearly US Woes and Asia revenues. “Interest rates in the US dollar bloc HSBC’s shock ousting of Flint as chief executive was and decisively from a position of strength is very HSBC said it no longer expects to achieve the tar- are now expected to fall rather than rise, and geopo- seen by some investors and bank insiders as a risky important.” A key difference with Tucker was over geted 6 percent return on tangible equity (ROE) by litical issues could impact a significant number of our gambit by Chairman Mark Tucker given the political Flint’s efforts to turn around HSBC’s under-performing 2020 in the US, where it has struggled for years to major markets,” HSBC said. Tucker played down the and economic uncertainties in the bank’s core markets. US business, the person familiar with the matter said. build scale and compete. That missed US goal is still impact of protests in Hong Kong against an extradition Only 18 months after presiding over the appointment HSBC declined to comment. Tucker, who became below the overall group aim of getting to more than 11 bill which have evolved into a broader anti-government of HSBC career veteran Flint as CEO, Tucker has now HSBC’s first externally appointed chairman when he percent ROE by 2020. HSBC hired Citigroup veteran backlash and said HSBC remained confident about the overseen his exit, while insisting the bank’s broad strat- joined HSBC’s board in late 2017, said that the search Michael Roberts in July to head its US business, in a future of the Asian financial center. Analysts had been egy will not change. HSBC shareholders mixed appre- for a new CEO, which will include both internal and renewed effort to turn it around. The US business is not watching closely to see whether the bank would hension with optimism when 61-year-old Tucker took external candidates, could take up to a year. “getting the proper returns”, HSBC’s CFO Stevenson announce a fresh buyback, as a failure to do so would over at the top of Europe’s biggest bank in October HSBC will also cut around 2 percent of its workforce told Reuters, adding the unit has also been hit by the have been read as a sign of mounting caution by 2017 as its first ever external chairman. or around 4,000 jobs this year as it seeks to reduce change in the monetary policy cycle. HSBC’s investment HSBC’s management. Prior to the latest buyback Tucker was known before joining HSBC in 2017 as costs, Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson said, banking business has also struggled in recent years as announcement, HSBC had purchased more than $6 bil- one of Asia’s most successful and hands-on executives adding it will pay out a total of around $650-700 mil- it lost a string of senior executives and saw US rivals lion of its own shares since 2016. — Reuters resolved, but see a robust labor market and resilient UK biggest retailer UK services bounce consumer-reflected in today’s modest beat,” Morgan Stanley economists Jacob Nell and Bruna Skarica said. The Bank of England expects official data on Tesco axes 4,500 fails to budge Friday to show growth in the world’s fifth-largest economy slowed to zero in the three months to June, supermarket jobs recession fears as the boost from premature Brexit preparations in early 2019 fades. LONDON: Supermarket giant Tesco said yesterday it is to LONDON: Britain’s dominant services sector unex- The start of the third quarter looks little better, axe about 4,500 jobs across its city-center UK stores to pectedly perked up in July, a major survey showed with worries mounting that Prime Minister Boris slash costs. Tesco, which is Britain’s biggest retailer, will car- yesterday, but this did little to shift fears that Brexit Johnson is seriously considering taking Britain out of ry out a “reduction of around 4,500 colleagues” as the risks and U.S.-China trade tensions are pushing the the European Union on Oct. 31 without a transition group experiences “an increasingly competitive and chal- economy close to recession. The IHS Markit/CIPS deal, risking major economic disruption. Even without lenging retail environment”, it said in a statement. UK Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) a chaotic Brexit, the BoE sees a one-in-three chance The job cuts, equivalent to about one percent of Tesco’s rose to a nine-month high of 51.4 from 50.2 in June, the economy will be shrinking in year-on-year terms worldwide workforce, come after the company axed 9,000 increasing cost pressures, we have to continue to review above all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists by early next year. Car sales fell to their lowest since roles in January. The latest job cuts will be at Tesco’s Metro the way we run our stores to ensure we reflect the way that had pointed to an unchanged reading. 2012 in July, adding to woes for a sector that says it stores, largely found in city and town centers across the UK. our customers are shopping and do so in the most effi- Despite the improvement, the services PMI will be one of the hardest hit by a no-deal Brexit that “The changes in our Metro stores will be focused on better cient way,” Jason Tarry, CEO of Tesco UK and Ireland, stands well below its long-run average and a com- would sever pan-European supply chains. tailoring them to how our customers shop,” the company said. said in yesterday’s statement. posite PMI also including last week’s weak manu- Sterling weakened to its lowest in nearly two years “The Metro format was originally designed for larger, “We do not take any decision which impacts col- facturing and construction numbers only just rose against the euro yesterday, while 10-year British gov- weekly shops, but today nearly 70 percent of customers use leagues lightly, but have to make sure we remain relevant above the 50 mark that divides growth from con- ernment bond yields fell to an all-time low below 0.5 them as convenience stores, buying food for that day.” for customers and operate a sustainable business now traction.