However, its shareholders are largely US and UK-based, it is the sixth-biggest company in the FTSE and it has been headquartered in Britain since 1993 after it bought Midland Bank (which has seen its former base become City hotspot The Ned).
One of the UK’s biggest investors Aviva, HSBC’s 12th largest shareholder, broke the City’s silence by publicly criticising the bank’s support of China’s new law last week. Having for years insisted that it is apolitical, the bank is now stuck between a rock and a hard place and there is no easy way out.
“We have sold and are no longer shareholders. After the dividend cuts and an uninspiring update, the Hong Kong issue was the last straw,” argues Colin Mclean, who runs SVM Asset Management. “All of these issues make relocation [to Hong Kong] more likely.”
Others agree, even though the bank said after a review of its headquarters in 2016 that it would stay based in the UK for at least a generation. “I do think recent geopolitical developments mean the Hong Kong listing question could resurface again. In fact, I would imagine this has become a key board agenda item already,” says John Cronin, a banks’ analyst at Goodbody.
However, insiders insist a U-turn remains unlikely, despite the current tensions. “One of the greatest inventions from the British is Greenwich Mean Time. You can talk to America and Asia in a single day, you can’t do that from Hong Kong or New York. Having Greenwich Mean Time is probably one of the most significant protections keeping HSBC in the UK,” says one person close to the board.
But even if HSBC stays UK-based for decades, its identity has been thrown into question and investors fear that chairman Mark Tucker has lost control.