© Reuters. File photo: His HSBC building in Canary Wharf, London, October 8, 2008. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs
Lawrence White
LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC HSBA.L> plans to complete the sale of its Russian business in the first half of 2023, in the most important update on the progress of the deal since it said it agreed to the sale in July 2022 said it is. Unit to local lender Expobank.
Europe’s largest bank has suffered a loss of $300 million on the sale of an expected business, HSBC said when it reported its full-year results for 2022.
HSBC said last July that the deal was pending approval from the Russian government and regulators, shortly before Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev announced that Russia would block foreign banks from selling their Russian operations.
The London-based lender reiterated on Tuesday that the deal is still pending regulatory approval and did not provide a further update on the status of that process.
Many multinationals moved swiftly to exit Russia in the wake of last February’s invasion of Ukraine, but banks have said they would be willing to invest in slower sectors amid concerns about what Russian law would allow. There is one. Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation.”
Last July, Credit Suisse was barred from disposing of shares in its Russian division by a Moscow court that ordered a €10 million ($10.7 million) seizure from a Swiss bank.
HSBC’s operations in Russia consisted of corporate banking, providing a range of financing and investment banking services to domestic and multinational clients.
At the time, HSBC’s chief financial officer, Ewen Stevenson, said the company employed about 200 people on the eve of the Russian invasion.
($1 = 0.9375 Euro)