HSBC Holdings PLC (LSE:HSBA) is continuing its retrenchment back to Asia with its South African business the next to be offloaded, a Bloomberg report claimed this morning.
London-headquartered HSBC has already disposed of its subsidiaries in the US, France and Canada with a deal pencilled in to sell its Argentinian unit in April.
Interest in the South African business is already coming from China and the UAE, said the report, though no deal has been agreed.
HSBC set up in the country in 1995, mainly in business banking and trading.
Its retail and business banking units in Mauritius, a place often used as a domicile by South African firms, were sold to Absa Group last month.
A new chief executive, Georges Elhedery, currently the bank’s finance head, takes over on 2 September and is expected to maintain the switch of focus to China, India and Singapore instigated by exiting CEO Noel Quinn.