HSBC chief executive Georges Elhedery’s planned overhaul of the bank has reignited debate about a break-up of the group, with one top 20 investor saying it should consider a total split between operations in the east and west.
Rajiv Jain, founder of GQG Partners, which owns an almost $800mn stake in HSBC, said the “direction” for the bank “should really be an eventual break-up”, an idea that was championed by top shareholder Ping An and shot down at an investor vote last year.
“I believe HSBC may have lost their way trying to be everything and trying to compete with the large bulge-brackets in the US, which has been an Achilles heel for a lot of the Swiss banks and UK banks,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.