HSBC Holdings PLC is moving to sell its loss-making French retail bank as part of longer-term efforts to unload businesses that lack scalability or strategic need, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The move is one of the British banking group's first strategic actions under newly appointed interim CEO Noel Quinn, who has been mandated to reallocate capital to focus on HSBC's strengths, the newspaper noted.
A French bank looking to expand its market share will be the likeliest buyer for HSBC France SA, which has a network of roughly 300 branches and some 800,000 customers and holds a 2% market share in lending and retail deposits, another source said. A formal process for the sale could reportedly begin as soon as this fall.
HSBC will continue to offer wholesale banking in the country following its exit from French retail banking, while Paris will remain as its hub for investment banking and corporate banking in the EU if Brexit pushes through as planned, the Journal wrote.
Efforts to turn around HSBC France, which reported a €55 million loss in its retail unit in 2018, have been hampered by the current low interest rate environment, the newspaper added.
In August, HSBC warned that continued trade tensions between the U.S. and China and the long-running protests in Hong Kong could impact revenues.
