HSBC denies reported plans to pull out of Philippines

MANILA, Philippines—British banking giant HSBC denied on Tuesday an overseas report that it was planning to pull out of the Philippines and a few other Asian jurisdictions to focus on its “core” markets.

In a statement, the spokesperson of HSBC Philippines said a Financial Times report that the bank would close banking units in the country was “completely speculative and not based on any new information or developments.”

“We would like to reiterate that we are not exiting any markets in Asia. Our strategy in the region is to have strong, balanced and diversified geographies and businesses,” said Johanna Garcia, HSBC Philippines senior vice president for communications and corporate sustainability.

The FT report said HSBC would focus on six key Asian markets are Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, while the strategic markets were Taiwan, which he said was the third leg of the Greater China story, and Vietnam, which was very fast growing.

“In Asia, HSBC has a string of markets where it only has between about 10 and 20 branches, which are now likely to be sold or shut. These are Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Macau, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka,” the report said.

But Garcia said the six priority and two strategic markets that were mentioned were where HSBC would prioritize its investment. “…But that does not mean that we exclude other markets,” she said.

“We continue to review all our businesses to improve the way we allocate capital to markets and businesses with clear growth potential as stated by HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver during Strategy Day last May 2011. We also continue to invest and grow in Asia as evidenced by our strong financial performance in 2011,” Garcia said.

It was earlier reported, however, that HSBC was keen on selling its 34 percent stake in a Philippine real estate company OCLP Holdings, a partnership with the Ortigas family and a key central business district developer.  Talks are ongoing for HSBC and some Ortigas family members to sell a controlling stake in OCLP to tycoon Henry Sy of the SM group.

HSBC, however, has been very upbeat on its business in the Philippines.  In January, a global HSBC report predicted that the Philippines could leapfrog to be the 16th largest economy in the world by 2050.