How Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Bank has evolved over the years
Hang Seng Bank started life as a small money-changing shop in 1933. It will now be privatised under a proposal floated by its parent, HSBC
Hang Seng Bank, one of the biggest banks in Hong Kong, on Thursday received a proposal from its parent HSBC to take it private.
The bank’s impairments tied to the city’s property sector, which is suffering from a multi-year downturn, have weighed on its bottom line. Non-performing loans rose to 6.69 per cent at the end of June, from 6.12 per cent at the end of last year, according to its interim report.
The bank’s total assets stood at HK$1.82 trillion (US$233.9 billion) in the first half, an increase of 1 per cent compared with the end of last year. However, its profit fell 30 per cent in the year’s first half to HK$6.88 billion from a year earlier.
In mainland China, the bank posted a loss of 118 million yuan (US$16.5 million) in the first half, compared with a profit of 244 million yuan a year earlier.
At the end of June, Hang Seng Bank had 8,143 employees in Hong Kong and the mainland, 253 fewer than at the end of last year.
Here are some of the bank’s major milestones: