HSBC Holding's pre-tax profit declines by 12 pct in H1

HSBC Holding Plc Monday announced that its reported profit before tax declined by 12 percent year-on-year to $12.34 billion in the first half of 2014, below the market estimation consensus of 12.90 billion dollars.

It was the first decline of pre-tax profit for the Europe's largest bank in terms of asset in the period since 2009.

HSBC said in the same period of last year, the group benefited from higher gains from disposals and reclassifications, principally with respect to Hang Seng Bank's investment in Industrial Bank, thus resulting a strong comparison basis.

In the first six months of 2014, the group's revenue fell by 9.3 percent to 31.17 billion dollars. Over the same period, HSBC's pre-tax profit in Asia dropped by 15 percent to 7.89 billion dollars, while Europe decreases by 18 percent to 2.26 billion dollars, data showed.

Pre-tax profit at the consumer banking and wealth management division decreased by seven percent to 3.05 billion dollars in the first half, while the commercial banking unit saw a 15 percent increase. HSBC's global private banking business recorded a profit of 364 million dollars, up from 108 million dollars a year earlier.

The group's Common equity Tier 1 ratio, a gauge of financial stamina, strengthened to 11.3 percent at the end of June 2014 from the 10.9 percent a half year earlier, figures also showed.

Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive of HSBC, said a statement that the group expects improvement in revenue in 2015, and "we remain broadly positive about the economic outlook for the majority of our home and priority markets."