With the Brexit can seemingly now kicked into touch until possibly Halloween, the possibility of a ‘no deal’ exit from the European Union on Friday has disappeared, meaning that the only interest for investors will be an AGM for global banking giant HSBC PLC (LON:HSBA).
The FTSE 100-listed lender’s shareholders will be gathering in at the International Convention centre in Birmingham for this year’s annual bunfight, with the dual-listed firm having already held an informal shareholders meeting in Hong Kong on 4 April.
HSBC will be able to introduce shareholders to its new group chief financial officer, Ewen Stevenson, previously chief financial officer of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (LON:RBS) who in January succeeded Ian Mackay, after his retirement.
Stevenson’s appointment finished a complete reshuffle of the top jobs at the bank, with John Flint have become its group chief executive in February 2018, and Mark Tucker appointed non-executive group chairman in October 2017.
The bank is due to issue a first-quarter 2019 update on Friday 3 May which investors will be hoping will show an improvement on its fourth quarter 2018 performance reported in February.
HSBC saw its pre-tax profit for the quarter ended 31 December 2018 drop to US$3.26bn, down from US$5.33bn in the third quarter, and below forecasts for around US$4bn, as adjusted quarterly net operating income fell to US$12.7bn, down from US$13.80bn in the previous quarter.
For full-year 2018, HSBC posted a reported pre-tax profit of US$19.9b, up 15.9% from US$17.2bn a year earlier but also below the consensus estimate of US$22bn, as reported revenue rose by 5% to US$53.8bn, driven by a rise in deposit revenue across its global businesses, primarily in Asia.
The lender’s core common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio - a key measure of financial strength - fell to 14% at the end of 2018, down from 14.5% a year earlier, mainly due to adverse foreign exchange movements.
Investors will be hoping for an indication of better news for the first quarter although given the Brexit uncertainties, a slowdown in global growth, and the ongoing Sino/US trade battles the omens still remain fairly negative in the Chinese Year of the Pig.
Significant announcements expected on Friday, April 12:
AGMs: HSBC PLC (LON:HSBA)
Finals: Highland Gold Mining Ltd. (LON:HGM)
Economic data: US import, export prices; US University of Michigan consumer sentiment index